Skull Island
by Cossacks250
Summary: Four years after restoring the heart, Moana has become a respected chieftain, leading her people to prosperity. But when new arrivals request her assistance, she will find herself on an uncharted island that has creatures beyond her wildest dreams, and worst nightmares. Some OC's.
1. Prologue

**I do not own Moana or any of the Toho/Universal content used here. Some OC's**

Water. Everywhere one looked, there was water, stretching out over the horizon and beyond, encompassing all that lay before them. Its crystal blue colour glimmered in the sunlight and the smell would fill the nostrils of anyone who happened to be sailing here. What made it more amazing was the complete reflection it seemed to be having far above; the sky was also and stretched on for what seemed like forever. One would think that maybe there were _two_ seas for the people of the world below, the one they were currently on and one that existed over their heads. Maybe there were more boats up there going back and forth between islands. Maybe that was what the clouds were.

Such were the squeals and ideas of the children who played aboard the deck of the boats that sailed calmly across the open water, their wooden hulks guided by the wind in their beautifully ink patterned sails, each one steadily keeping pace with the other. Given that it was sunny, most of the people on the vessels were milling about too with the children; talking, eating a midday meal, looking out across the water in search of their destination. The children were playing a variety of games including chase, 'find the coconut filled with sand' – an activity where said object was hidden on or below deck and they were to scour the boat in search of it – or simply play fighting or a ball game with a coconut or another piece of fruit. Many times the adults would call out to them to be careful and not fall into the water, lest the 'scary' sea monsters emerge and gulp them down as a snack; something the children were quick to remember and would squeal and run for cover whenever they moved near the edge of the deck. Such actions made those who witnessed giggle with delight.

Among them was a man who was tall and had stocky build, tanned skin, a thick but short crop of black hair, graying in some areas and a pair of chocolate brown eyes. A red legless covering akin to a skirt was wrapped around his waist, and small red bands covered his wrists and ankles. A necklace made of shells was placed around his neck. Tattoos adorned the top left side of his chest, shoulder and forearm, each one looking like a mixture of shapes and random patterns, but to him each told their own story, their own part of his island's history, mythology, the stories passed down from generation to generation. He was as much of a piece of the island's history as was anyone else that had come before, was present and would exist long after his time was over.

Currently he stood at the front of the boat, gazing out across the ocean, his face relaxed, composed and eyes slowly searching the horizons for their island destination. They had been travelling for a few days now, the wind having been good enough for them to leave Montunui after a small storm. The boat he was on was the largest, signifying his leading role and the head of the small fleet. About five other smaller ships surrounded his, two a few tens of metres behind, one to the left and one to the right. Overall, there were just under a hundred who had left Montunui in search of where their families, friends, and even strangers whom they cared about nonetheless, had gone. Every day he had been hoping they had been going the right way, trusting in the ocean, the stars of the night and the wind to take them to their destination. It was all built on hope; the feeling that they would get there by chance or by the winds of fate and the mercy of the ocean. All of it was hope, for he knew just how what was before him was something that although so beautiful beyond comparison, could easily take a life. Or in this case if it decided to be incredibly merciless, _tens of lives._

" _Aloha,_ honey!"

He looked over his shoulder to see another tanned skinned woman walking over. Her face was beautiful with a small nose, brown eyes that could stop him dead in his tracks – something that had happened many times since their first meeting many decades ago – and long black hair that was tied into a braid held together by vines from a tree; said braid draped over her shoulder. She wore a long two layered dress that was colourful on the one closest to her skin and cream coloured on the outer layer, both coming short of her feet. A small vine necklace with a clam tied to it was around her neck a small shell bracelet adorned her right wrist. Though she too looked slightly aged, the smile and beauty of his wife, Sina, never ceased to amaze him and make her look at least ten years his junior, despite there being only about three between them.

He smiled back at her, greeting her with an _"Aloha,"_ that was practically natural amongst their people. When they reached each other, they hooked arms and she leaned on him, their eyes meeting with the same passion that seemed to be reborn every morning they woke up, never once faltering. The adult pair resumed looking out over the water before them, listening to the the boat as it pushed on through the water, the sounds of various conversations and activities of the people behind them and even the occasional call of a white feathered bird that swooped overhead; it seeming to be in the same search for land as them.

"It'll be exciting to see them all again, Tui." Sina said, calling her husband by his name rather than title.

He gave a slight nod, his lips forming a small smile. "Without a doubt." He replied, pausing a moment or two to intake a breath of fresh air, the smell of the salt water filling his nostrils. "Especially you-know-who." He added with a slightly amusing tone.

Sina tittered. "Of course. Moana." She said but then reminded herself. "I mean, _Chief_ Moana _._ "

"Yes, she's no longer a little girl anymore." A pause as his and his wife's eyes met once again. "But to us, she always will be."

She gave a noise of affirmation. "And the gods were lucky to bless us with her. I have no doubt the tribe will be prospering under her."

Tui nodded to himself as if to say: _That's my girl._

Their daughter, Moana, was, and still is a loved much member of their tribe. Her joy, happiness and ability to see the best in everyone made her the pinnacle of positivity. She had been that way from when she was a toddler, always ready to make her or other children laugh with her curiosity, humorous antics and, sometimes, stubborn headstrong personality. There was no doubt much of this had come from her late grandmother, Tala, who had taught her to be calm, collected and yet mischievous and playful as the ocean. By the time she had grown up, she had become a strong woman, something that her mother had remarked as being _"Just like her"_ when she had been younger. Moana had quickly grasped the necessary rules of leadership, planning, fairness and perseverance and developed into the chief her father and grandfather and their ancestors had been.

And it seemed to have come at the right time. Montunui had been slowly dying at the time when their 16 year old daughter set off to restore the heart of Te Fiti, a goddess who had brought life to the ocean and its many islands. For about three days and four nights she was gone, and when Tui had learnt of Sina having helped her go it had put a strain on their marriage to the point where Sina began wondering if she had made a mistake letting her go. But when Moana had come back over the reef and leapt into their arms on the beach, tears rolling down their faces, she and her husband had been overjoyed beyond all measure and listened to Moana as she recounted her journey. Everything down to the last detail from the moment she left to finding Maui, the shape-shifting god who had been responsible for taking the heart in the first place, to going to Lalotai to restoring Maui's self-confidence and then finally restoring the heart, and with it all life to the ocean. She had become a hero.

But still, even though four years had passed and the event was now a story of inspiration, courage and hope, Sina occasionally felt guilty over letting her daughter go so easily. _At least I or her father could have gone with her._ We _could have gone through it together._ Tui had always been quick to remind her even though it had been rather foolish on her part, he no doubt would have refused to let her go anywhere near the water, would have burned the boats that they were now using and even gone as far as keeping Moana a prisoner on the island. Such a thing would have doomed them all.

 _We had all learnt something from then_ he thought to himself. _And Moana came back safe and sound. That's all that matters._

"I see it!" A voice called out from above, all heads turning to look at the source. One of the men, a tall, athletic person with a green legless covering similar to Tui, was holding onto the wooden mast with one hand and shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked ahead. His face lit up and he cried out: "Dead ahead!" emphasising it by pointing far ahead across the water.

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing and saw, a few miles away just over the horizon, the top of a series of hills that seemed to stick out of the water like some kind of gateway. Even though they were far, those on the boats could see the greenery that covered the mountains, each gradually getting bigger as they approached, their points reaching higher into the sky as if they were growing. Those on the boats rushed to the front, all beaming with smiles and excited chatter. Tui and Sina smiled at each other once again and joined everyone in looking ahead at the coming island.

* * *

The jungle undergrowth was always inviting; its myriad of colours, various animal sounds and the warmth were always a pleasure to hear, smell and see. In a way it was inviting, beckoning, even seductive in its ability to get people to walk through them, to scour its various hidden areas, the many nooks and crannies so to speak. Who knew what would be in them? Anyone who was new to the island would immediately associate such scenery with mystery, hidden treasures, natural wonders, maybe even danger.

Those were the things that the inhabitants of the island had thought of when they had landed here about three years ago. It had been unexplored and was rich in fruit bearing trees, had soil that was edible for farming and the waters around it were popular with fish, particularly with the lagoons at the back of the island. There were even a few small bird flocks and wild pigs that lived in scattered populations across the island. All of this had been akin to landing on a new planet for the inhabitants. This island was amazing! It was rich, beautiful and perfect for another village! They had struck gold and were quick to seize the initiative.

With a rush of excited adrenaline, Moana sprinted through the jungle, eagerly jumping over logs and thick tree roots, pushing branches out of the way. She even managed to swing across a wide riverbed using a rope tied to a branch of a tree that stuck out over the river but she barely paid it any attention. Right now, she was set on one thing. Get to the beach! Get to the beach and nothing else!

It took her about five minutes to get there, during that time she had almost lost her flower ring headdress, a symbol of her status as chief of the island. _This jungle was never ending, and I've walked in it countless times since we came here!_ Eventually, she emerged from the jungle and found herself in a grassy area between a small grove of trees on one side and small patch of farmland on the other. Ahead of her were several buildings built out of bamboo, vines, leaves and other materials. Through a 'path' in the trees about two hundred metres ahead of her was the beach, and the large boat of the Montunui flotilla. Several inhabitants were already rushing towards it, enthusiastic to greet the arrivals.

Her heart leapt with joy as she rushed ahead to join them, everything else passing her in a blur. Before she knew it, she found herself on the beach and a sea of people before her, hundreds of voices happily welcoming, congratulating, laughing and conversing with each other as the inhabitants welcomed the arrivals. Her smile grew even wider and she joined in the mass, quickly becoming engulfed in the waves of ' _Alohas'_ and happy greetings and such that came her way. She replied in due, embracing all who did her and welcoming them with happiness and 'glad to see you'.

"Ah, there she is! Chief Moana!"

Suddenly, she was swept up in a powerful pair of arms and embraced so tightly that she was sure her ribs were on the verge of breaking. Those around her chuckled loudly as she looked up and, though struggling for breath, met the cheerful face of her father. She was quick to return the embrace, cuddling into her father as another pair of arms joined them, embracing her with the same love that she felt from her father. She looked and saw her mother and pulled her closer, the three of them forgetting the world around them for a moment as they relished in each other's company. Not as chiefs or warriors or as people of Montunui, but as a family. They were reunited once again.

After a moment, the three released each other and Tui set his daughter back on the ground. "It's wonderful to see you again, Moana." He said.

"Me too," she replied softly, trying to hold back a few tears of happiness and her mother lovingly placed her hand against her cheek. "I've missed you guys so much."

"And we you, Moana," Sina replied, planting a little kiss on her daughter's forehead, earning a little giggle from the crowd around them.

The young chief giggled and brushed her long, wavy black hair behind her ears as she stepped back a pace and cleared her throat.

"Well, mother and father, and fellow people of Montunui," she declared, making sure her voice was clear and heard by all. All conversations fell silent as people on the shore and on the boats listened to the young woman. "I'm so glad to see you all again. It's always a pleasure for our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, fathers, friends and alike to come to us again from across the sea. It warms my heart." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in, pleased that many of the new arrivals were welcomed here. "Even though many of you were present here so long ago when we founded this island, I feel it appropriate to say. I welcome you to _Kalea._ "

When her words finished, everyone cheered and some even applauded. Oh, it was so good for many of them to be back with their families who they had not seen for so long. Whether related or not, it was a family reunion they all appreciated and had been looking forward to. It was time to celebrate.

As those on shore took to helping the arrivals unload the boats, the children immediately running into the jungle to begin enthusiastically exploring the island as if it were a new world, Moana turned back to her parents.

"Well, how about I show you around?" she offered brightly.

Chief Tui nodded and waved his hand. "Lead the way."

And with that, they joined their daughter towards the village, happy to see that things were well, and everyone was also doing well. But most of all, they were beyond graceful to be with their daughter and proud to see how far she had come.

* * *

The night had set in quickly over _Kalea_ island, filling the sky with an amazing display of stars that seemed to resonate with beauty and tranquillity, its very existence on this almost completely clear night able to make even people filled with anger and frustration feel relaxed and at peace with themselves. The moon shone brightly as it slowly moved across the night sky, lighting up the ocean surrounding the island like a lighthouse, and casting a silhouette across the back of the island as the row of mountains at the centre stood tall and proud like kings before their people.

Far below in the village, it was a buzz of activity as people watched the show of eight women, each dressed in knee length skirts made of fabrics, cloth that covered the top and centre of their torsos and each adorned with a crown made of flowers and seashells, danced to the beat of tribal musical instruments. Around them was a ring of spectators, all of them watching the show interestingly. A few torches were placed throughout the viewers, lighting up the area around them so as to help them see what was going on.

Sat in front of the show, in the middle of the viewers, were Tui and Sina, both looking on happily as Moana led the dance, each woman moving in rhythm with her with turns of their hips, gentle sweeps of their arms and moving so gracefully with their feet it was like they were the water itself. They moved with fluidity and care, not hoping to outdo the other but each moving in unison with the other. All played their part like a living body, each of them being … shall we say, the 'limbs' and 'organs' that ensured life.

As the last beats of the drums came to an end, the dancers brought their display to a halt with a final spin on their toes, all coming together to form a circle. When they were just a foot or two apart, they stopped, their backs facing the crowd around them. At this, the music ended and the women bowed to as applause ran out among the inhabitants. A few of the males whistled out to the ladies, some of who replied with winks. Moana caught this happening with one of the girls a year older than her, and her fiancée and smiled and rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself.

 _I'm glad I sleep heavy._ She mentally commented to herself.

Tui clapped loudly and stood up, pleased with the display.

"Well done, ladies! Well done!" he congratulated them as they filed out into the crowd. He and Sina walked forward and hugged Moana, praised her for her performance, and then Tui looked at the many faces around them.

"An amazing performance and I thank you all for it, and for the welcome we have received here." He said. "I must say, when we left Montunui I was always wondering if we would ever see land again, if we would be able to meet one another on such occasions as this." A pause as he let his words sink in. "But I am glad that we landed, and I am also glad that we are by our people once again. You have all, my daughter included, come very far in the three years you have been here. You have persevered and never allowed your happiness to be taken from you."

Cheers ran out through the crowd, even coming from Sina and Moana. The chief allowed them to carry on for a moment before raising his hands to call for silence.

"But this credit does not go to me. It goes to all of you." he continued, spreading his arms out to emphasise everyone. "Despite the danger of nearly losing everything we worked for many years ago, we carried on and have become stronger than ever. Our love and compassion for each other is insurmountable and continues to grow. And no where is this more present than my daughter."

All eyes fell on the young woman in unison with the cheers and applause rang out again, some whooping her name and others calling out with "Well done, Moana!" and "We're glad to have you!" All the attention made her blush and she smiled meekly and waved nervously.

"I am glad to have left you in good hands for so long and I am sure she will continue to make us all proud. Moana," he turned to his daughter and put his hand on her shoulder, staring lovingly into the eyes of his daughter. "I'm very proud of you and what you have done. I'm glad you are my daughter."

She smiled back at her father and embraced him tightly, the words bringing a tear to her eye. "Thanks, dad. I love you."

She meant it, every fibre of her body did. Her parents had been sceptical of her obsession with the sea and her want to forge her own path in life ever since she was young, hoping she would grow out of it or, at least with her father, she would be taught to realise that she was happy where she was. In a way, they had been right. The lifestyle they had was indeed very happy, beneficial and worth living, but it had lacked the adventure, the desire to explore, the curiosity and the want to discover new homes for their people to build, grow and prosper. She had helped Montunui rediscover their past traditions, their quest for seeing the world and helped restore balance across the seas. It was that, _and_ their desire to embrace it wholeheartedly that had enabled them to go on to even better things.

 _I couldn't have done it without grandma, though. And my family and people._ Moana would often think to herself at times whilst making sure the island was in order, thoughts of the former making her feel momentarily sad. _If only she was here to see this._

But she knew she would be, and she was sure that she was proud of her granddaughter for taking them this far.

The two released each other after a moment and Tui cleared his throat and spoke once more.

"Well, thank you again for the lovely performance ladies. But now it is time for us to get some shut-eye. It will be a new day for us tomorrow."

Everyone agreed and gradually began to head home, the parents carrying or leading the children by the hands. As Tui, Sina and Moana bade the people goodnight, the young chief paused for a moment to look up at the stars and then at the sea, her thoughts away to her journey, her grandmother, to her times as a child and having brought everyone this far. It was what brought them to where they were now; living on a safe island, everyone being happy and their society thriving. Despite all the odds they had faced, she had managed to bring them to this point, and further if it carried on like this.

 _I'm grateful to everyone, especially …_ her thoughts drifted on him, the one who had helped her on her journey so long ago.

"Moana!" her mother called out from nearby; the young chief looking at her to see her parents walking in the direction of one of the main buildings. "Come, you need to get some sleep."

With a nod, she glanced once more at the sea, quickly thinking of him again, wondering where he was, and if she would see him again.

 _I hope so_ was all she could think of as she rushed to re-join her parents.


	2. New arrivals

**The next day**

The sun had risen high into the blue sky, spreading its warmth and light across all that lay below. The ocean was like a spring pool, the warmth radiating out of it as the sun's head made contact. Life continued its course undisturbed; sea turtles swam with their young, their bodies gliding through the water; fish schools of immense size moved effortlessly across the ocean. In the air seagulls glided, their calls ringing out as they circled several of the gatherings of fish in the hopes of scoring a meal. The morning had begun bright and busy for nature and would continue to do so as the day wore on

On Kalea, it was very similar for the island's inhabitants. Already many of them were at work weaving baskets from palm leaves, collecting coconuts and other fruits from the groves of trees, or even slightly into the jungle just behind the village, cooking meat, tending to the farms and planting trees in any space available. Children ran between the adults, playing various games, their chatter happily fading into and becoming part of the array of sounds that filled the air. Fishing boats bobbed up and down in the water a few tens of metres from the shore, some idle and their crew waiting patiently for any sight of fish, others in small groups with nets between them to catch anything the ocean would provide to them. Occasionally, a few shouts would ring out and a net would be pulled up, laden with a few to many fish and other crew members would rush to load them into the baskets to take them back.

In one of the large buildings situated on a small hill near a grove of coconuts, Moana chatted with her mother as she washed herself behind a thick tarp screen that was decorated with the same shell the young chieftain had put on the mountain back on Montunui. Her father had gone out to asses the village and let his daughter have a bit of a rest and socialise with his mother; the three of them having talked for a while last night after the welcoming dances. Her mother was sat on the floor near a line of blankets on the floor to serve as their beds, arranging them neatly.

"I am not as messy as you would think, mum!" Moana insisted.

"You are, young lady. You forgot to make your bed. Didn't me and your father teach you how to clean up after yourself?" Sina told her daughter with a light chuckle.

Moana tittered. "Okay, I admit it was once." A pause as she splashed herself a bit: followed by a light knocking of wood as she dropped an empty coconut shell used to collect and then emptied the water over her body. "Maybe twice."

"Or several hundred times like when you were back on Montunui." Her mother added.

Moana sighed. "Always like to be picky, don't you?" she teased.

"I'm your mother." Sina finished folding the blankets and, after laying out her daughter's clothes. stood up, having dressed into her clothes for today and collecting a tarp towel from a wooden peg on the wall, waiting for her daughter. "I'm allowed to be picky."

Another splash and then the sound of a foot hitting wood. "So are you gonna end up as the village crazy lady?"

Sina rolled her eyes and lightly chuckled. "Ha-ha, very funny!" she replied.

Moana giggled, this banter with her mother certainly being amusing, and often embarrassing. For her at least. But it was good to talk with her, just some time for them, some time away from the village duties and where she could be with her parents as if they were a normal family again. As she stepped out of the wooden bucket on the floor and shook herself dry a little, her thoughts drifted back to those mornings when she was a little girl. She would be the first up, and would jump on her father, making him cry out in surprise and then chuckle as they and her mother all cuddled up together. Other times during the evenings, they would fall asleep together as her parents or other storytellers on the island, especially her grandmother, Tala, would recount mystical tales of island voyager, gods and demi-gods and vicious beasts to her and other children. She smiled to herself again: those mornings being close and cherished memories for her.

 _Especially grandma…_

For a moment, her face fell a little as she thought back to that day, or night to be more accurate, all those years ago when her grandmother had breathed her last. She had been on her way to find Maui when it had happened, and had seen a manta ray seemingly emerge from the island as her grandma's soul left her physical body and became a spirit. Though she had been devastated by the passing of her family member, she knew her grandmother had been there with her the entire journey. She even reminded people that though she may have restored the heart, it had been Tala who had urged her to begin it and find Maui. If she had not been so insistent and encouraging, Moana really believed that their island would be nothing but a blackened shell, a land devoid of all greenery and the myriad of other colours one would find on an island. It would be lifeless; empty. Well and truly dead.

"Moana?" came the voice of her mother, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I was just thinking." She replied. "Can I have my towel?"

Her mother responded holding the towel over the tarp screen and she grabbed it, wrapping it around herself and walking out, smiling at her mother, who responded in turn.

"Good wash?" she asked.

"Definitely," Moana replied with a nod as she walked over to the bed. "Oh, thanks," she added when she saw her clothes. "And don't worry, I _won't_ make a mess." She added again, her tone teasing.

"That's my girl!" Sina said with mock enthusiasm, making her daughter giggle, and walked towards the exit. "I'll stand outside and make sure no one accidentally walks in." And with that, she pushed the entrance aside and walked out as the tarp fell back into place, leaving the young woman alone.

As Moana dressed herself, her clothes being her usual white dress with a bright red covering for her chest and part of her mid-section, and a small necklace made of a vine weaving through a tiny whitish/greyish object, she happened to glance up at the wall above her bed and stopped. There on the wall was a tarp that one of the storytellers had had made once for Tala when Moana was a toddler. It was of a large, stocky human-like person with the body being like a series of huge square shapes. In its hand was a long fishhook, the point aimed towards the ground. The body of the figure was covered in various tattoos and a small belt of palm leaves covered his hips. The face held a permanent smile, revealing two rows of big teeth, and the eyes seemed to be staring right at her, directly into her soul as a sign that it was always watching her.

Moana rolled her eyes as she put on her chest piece. _I wouldn't be surprised if Maui had that kind of side to him._

Still, it made her think of him and she found herself looking up at it again as if trying to talk to him, to find some way of communication between them. It had been so long since they had last seen each other; just over three years to be exact. Maui had arrived a few weeks after they had come to Kalea, meeting Moana's parents properly for the first time, and they had all gotten along very well. He had been a great help and a big laugh: assisting in building some of the huts, showing some of the kids how to sail, collecting fruit and, at night, entertaining the villagers, with stories of his adventures. The use of his magic fishhook was always a great laugh too as he used it to transform into various animals for emphasis during one of his tales, or just to make the kids laugh. Moana giggled to herself as she recollected how one of his shape-shifting episodes, in which he had turned into a piglet, had led to him being grabbed by a few of the girls and used as a ride. Rather than get them off, he decided to have fun with them and run with them on his back through the village and across the beach. Moana, along with much of the village, had laughed so much and they constantly teased him about a 'cute little piggy'. Something he took in his stride.

Moana smiled to herself, cherishing those days as some of the best in her life. What she had really enjoyed was not just all of them being together, but that Maui had changed a lot. Not physically but in terms of his personality. When she had met him he was really self-centered, stubborn, selfish and just an all-round idiot. But he had become one who held everyone in regard, who thought of everyone and wanted to keep them safe. Most of all, he had cared. Not in the way to garner more fame but he had come to _really_ care about people. He did not take things to give to humans in order to make them love him; he had done that by getting to know them personally. And it was something Moana was proud of for him. And, as he had told her, Maui had been thrilled at her becoming a way finder, a beacon of hope for her tribe, a restorer of the balance set down by the gods so long ago.

 _If only he had stayed_ she thought to herself, the melancholy suddenly coming back to her again. _If only …_

"Are you okay, Moana?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin as her mother walked over, wondering what was taking her daughter so long.

"I thought you'd fallen asleep," she said.

Moana shook her head. "No, no. I was just … looking at the tarp with Maui."

Her mother walked up to her and looked at the tarp with her daughter, her mind too reminiscing of those days when the shape-shifting demi-god had been with them. She had enjoyed his company, as had everyone in the village, and had been glad he had helped her daughter on her quest to restore the heart of Te Fiti. If only he had stayed longer, he would have been one of them.

"It's sad that he left all of a sudden." Sina commented.

"Yeah," was Moana's quiet reply, looking down at the floor. "But he's a demi-god, and he can't stick around us mortals forever."

Sina looked at her daughter, a little surprised at her bluntness, but saw the edge of the sad expression on her face. It was obvious to all of them how close the two had been, how they had literally saved each other many times during the quest. They had bickered and disagreed sometimes but had always stood by one another. The four or five months Maui of Maui being here had, and Sina was sure of it, helped her daughter get through her first year as chieftain of Kalea. And probably everyone else here as well given how hard it had been with the storm season rolling in at the time, and then a small wave of illness following shortly after.

But then, Maui had said that he had to leave one evening. He had been a little quiet a few days before and was noticeably more reclusive in the last two or so. When he told Moana, she had been shocked, upset and, understandably, angry at him. They had gone to the beach to discuss it and, at least from Moana told them, they had, to quote: _"Understood one another."_

As one would expect, everyone had come to see him off when he left the next morning and he had given Moana a long hug and had promised, or more likely been forced by her daughter to agree to _"Come back soon,"_ and " _Be safe out there."._ And then he turned into a hawk and flew away into the sky and was gone.

That day, as previously stated, was three years ago, and for a long time Moana had been waiting for him to come back. Even when her parents had left to go back to Montunui just months later they had heard from travellers between the two islands that their daughter was commonly standing on the beach, waiting for her demi-god friend to come back. A few times she had even fallen asleep there. Such things had worried them but, thankfully, the occurrences of this became less as time went on. Moana had just had to accept that Maui had changed his mind and decided not to return: either that or his understanding of 'soon' was measured in years rather than days, weeks or months. Besides, the village was still in the early stages of development at the time and she had had more important things to focus on. Though, every once in a while, she did go for walks to ponder and reflect, and her thoughts did drift onto the times she and Maui had spent together.

"Moana?" Sina asked, resting her hand on her chin.

Moana stood up, took a deep breath and shook her head a little as if trying to remove the sadness from within her. No, she had to buck up. She was the chief after all: she could not spend her time moping about Maui and where he was. And she had no right to keep him here, no matter how much she wished for it. Plus, the island needed a leader and she had a job to do. No time for being stuck in the past; look ahead to the future!

"I'm fine," she replied, forcing a smile as she hugged her mother and walked outside; her mother following close behind. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" she told herself and began listing several different things that needed to be done: arranging for new coconut trees to be planted, sorting old and spoiled fruit from each other, making sure the fish supply kept coming in and teaching the kids how to dance later. Her mother chuckled and commented on how she was like her father, to which Moana just giggled at.

"Chief!"

Moana and her mother looked in the direction of the call to see a young man of about twenty-two years, short black hair and dressed in a brown cloth wrapped around his waist. He called out again to them.

"What is it?" Moana asked him, her voice slightly concerned. _Was it a problem with the fishing? Did somebody get hurt? Or was her father in trouble! Wait, get it together!_

"We have a new boat on the beach," the villager informed her. "And it's not one of ours. There's people in it too

Now _that_ surprised Moana. What? People? As in travellers? All the way out here?! That was really strange: they had never seen anyone else out here before. Only people from Montunui were known in this ocean area. Sure, there were likely to be others out there but Moana, or anyone she knew for that matter had never thought about them. They had no need to.

Of course, the next question that came to her mind was: _What are they doing here?_

* * *

When Moana arrived on the beach with her mother, the villager and several others kin tow, she saw a large canoe resting on the sand. Moana was quick to make a mental note of the large scratches on its side and a visible crack at the front. Three people were sitting in it, two of them looking out at the various boats fishing in the sea. The third looked over in her direction but her attention was not focused on him.

Standing next to the boat was her father, who was in deep conversation with about four others: three men and a woman. All of them were tanned as the islands inhabitants, so that told Moana they were from the same stretch of ocean at least. Two of the men with the women were tall and thin, one of them having a thick crop of black hair on his head. The third man was shorter and a little overweight but had a lot of muscle on his arms and was watching the conversation between the woman and Moana's father intently. The woman was about Moana's height and, like her, possessed long black hair – though hers was completely straight as opposed to Moana's frizzy look – brown eyes, a beautiful face and was dressed in a dress similar to that of Sina, only it was a little shorter, stopping just below the knees, and was more of a brownish colour.

 _What's going on?_ Moana mentally asked herself. _Who are these people?_

She exchanged a glance with her mother, who looked just as confused as she did. She did not know anything about this. And judging by the looks everyone else were giving her, they were just as stumped.

Deciding it was best to get to the bottom of this, Moana walked over with the others in tow. As they approached, the woman and her three companions saw them coming and her eyes held a curious expression for a moment and then turned to Tui.

"Have no fear, it's just my daughter, Moana. The chieftain of this island." He told her.

The woman seemed to relax at this revelation and greeted Moana with a cheerful "Aloha!" and, before the young woman knew what hit her, pulled her close and touched their foreheads against one another. Moana went wide-eyes, shocked by this sudden movement but was too stunned to say anything. The woman released her and stepped back a pace, a welcoming smile on her face.

"It's very nice to meet you," she said, her voice soft and clear. "Please forgive me for this sudden arrival onto your shores. We mean you no harm."

Moana, still surprised by the sudden arrival, looked to her father for help. Even though he gave her a look of reassurance, she could tell that he too was a little surprised by all this and was probably just as wary as her. After all, it was not every day that a boat load of people landed on your island and introduced themselves, _especially_ when, as he glanced back at their large canoe, it looked like theirs. It looked as if it had just some through a fierce storm and hit some rocks.

 _Well, can't hurt to be polite._ "Uh, thank you. Well, I welcome you to Kalea." Moana replied, smiling at the woman and extending her arm at the surrounding beach.

She nodded. "Thank you," she replied. "Your father has already introduced himself to me, so I will introduce myself. My name -" she placed her hand on chest "- is Kakalina. These gentlemen -" she extended her arm to the two tall men behind her "- are two people of my tribe members, and they are also brothers; Koa and Tama. And this man -" she moved her arm to the slightly overweight man "- is Kale, my cousin."

The three men nodded and smiled at her, making Moana feel a little less awkward. _Okay, so we know each other on a personal level now. Well … sort of. But what are they doing here?_

"Well it's nice to meet you, but … what are you doing here?" Moana asked her.

At these words, Kakalina's expression changed from happy to anxious and she exchanged a nervous glance with the other three men behind her. All of them were wondering the same thing: _Should we tell them? They might not help us._

Well it couldn't hurt to try.

Kakalina looked back at Moana and said: "That is something we need to discuss with you."


	3. Decision made

"So, you have travelled for several days without food or water, and there were more of you?"

"Yes, Moana. Some of us were lost when we tried to leave. As far as I know, we are all that's left."

Inside the main building of the village where Moana and her family slept, a meeting was being held. Moana sat at the 'head', her back towards the wall and furthest from the door, with her parents flanking her on both sides. A few others from the village sat either side of them, and then, second from Moana's mother on the left side, came Kale. Next to him was Koa, then another young man from the village and then Kakalina. She was positioned directly opposite Moana, her back towards the door and facing the young chieftain. Next to her was Tama, and then one of the other men who Moana had seen on the boat Kakalina's group had arrived on and then another two women from the village.

They had been talking for about ten minutes now. After Kakalina, who was obviously in charge of the group, had stated that the reason for their presence on Kalea was 'something they needed to discuss', Moana had decided to take them to the main building, and had some fruit and drinks brought as refreshments for their guests. Kakalina thanked her and then set down to explaining why they were on Kalea. She had recounted, with input also provided from the others in her group, mostly from her cousin Kale, that their island had become, to quote: "Hellish," and had not been the paradise their tribe had believed when they landed there about ten years ago. After giving a brief description of the island, she then explained how, she had explained how her village leaders had ordered a group of volunteers to leave and search for help. Kakalina had volunteered, as had the others with her, and another boat – these having been the ones that were 'lost' after they left the island.

When Moana had inquired about the damage to Kakalina's boat, the woman had been … well, Moana thought she was slightly evasive as she explained that it was down to a storm they had run into shortly after leaving the island. Kakalina also quickly turning onto their journey into the ocean also made the chieftain more suspicious but she said nothing more.

"And that is how we found your island." Kakalina finished. "So, as you can see, we've had an arduous journey. We were starting to think that we were lost but the gods delivered us to you."

"Yes, we apologise for the sudden turning up like this." Kale spoke up, tucking into his third banana, peeling the skin off entirely and putting it in a bowl on the floor in front of him.

"It's no problem," Tui said, trying to be friendly but his family members and fellow tribesmen noticed his tone was slightly on edge, that Kakalina was just being … too nice. "But I have a feeling you are here for more than just to tell us about your home."

Kakalina looked up at Tui, a moment of concern flashing across her face for a second, unsure of what to say. She glanced to Kale and then to Tama as if looking to them for support. Should she tell them? Would they even help her and her fellow tribesmen? They had come all this way, and whatever they said next could determine if it was a good thing or if it was all for nothing.

A sigh. "Alright, we're here because we need your help." Koa said, all eyes falling on him. "We need you to take us back to our island." He added, his tone nonchalant.

Silence fell; all eyes glancing from one another. Kakalina and Kale glared daggers at Koa, but he ignored them, looking back down at the bowl of food he had before him. Moana noticed the anger from the woman to one of her tribesman. What was wrong with them? Were they hiding something?

Kakalina sighed. "Sorry, he's very blunt with his words," she informed the young chieftain, all attention now back on her again. "But … he is correct. We've come here to ask for your help, Moana. We need to get back to our island and see if we can save it. If not, we would appreciate it if you would help us leave the island."

Now all eyes fell on the young woman; the look of surprise evident, the sheer possibility of having to help evacuate an entire island of people was just completely astonishing to her. Part of her did not know what to say. The again, what _could_ she say? This sort of thing had never happened to her before, or even to her father or anyone else from Montunui that she knew of. It was just so alien to them.

But part of her felt like they had to help them. These were voyagers like them after all: regardless of differences they were people who needed help, and probably had family and friends stuck on the island they had come from, hoping against hope that they would return and take them to safety. These people would no doubt do the same for her and her people if they were in a similar situation, right? I mean, they had to! They just would not leave them out there. And Moana really could not bring herself to do that to someone else now. Besides, would it be so hard to save an island? She had done it before.

 _But why do I get the feeling that this is not what it is?_ A voice said into her ear.

She looked again at the faces of the new arrivals: Koa's blank look, the patient but noticeably nervous look of Kale; the composed and possibly fear-invoking look of Tama, and the pleading expression of Kakalina. It was clear they needed her help. If not, then where were they to go? Out into the ocean and spend days, maybe even weeks on end trying to find another island and ask them for help? There was no possibility they would find another island full of people – obviously aside from Montunui – out there. Even if they did, they had no idea what the locals' reaction to them would be. Would they help, or would they send them away?

"Moana," Kakalina spoke up, snapping her out of her thoughts. They locked eyes, uncertainty meeting desperation. "Please, we need your help,"

The young chieftain looked around at those as if looking to them for help. All of them were mixed in their responses, amazing her slightly at how someone could answer without necessarily having to open their mouth.

"I-I … I need some time to think about it." She said indecisively. "I promise I will have an answer for you later today."

Kakalina nodded understandingly, stating a simple, heartfelt: "Thank you."

As silence fell over them again, Moana looked to her father and mother for support. Her father had a dour expression, one of mistrust and doubt. Her mother's was more concerned, cautious: Moana even thought she was a little frightened.

 _Oh, this is going to be interesting._

* * *

"Moana, I don't think you should do it! I don't trust her."

An hour had passed since the end of the meal, and now the three stood in the building with two other villagers, a man and a woman, deep in conversation. After the initial talk, little else had been discussed between those in the meeting and soon it ended up with small conversations between the members. They had all been happy and exchanged some jokes and laughs, but under the surface they were all a little suspicious; most notably Moana's parents of the new arrivals. Barely any words were spoken between the three during the rest of the meal, and when everyone had left Moana and her parents, along with two others who were helpers to the young chieftain, had been discussing it.

So far, Moana had been torn between helping them and not helping them.

"I know, dad! But what if they really need our help?" she replied, looking up from her sitting position on the floor; the others sitting around her in a small circle formation.

Tui, on her right again, spoke up: "You don't know that. They could be using you for all you know."

Moana went to speak but the woman, three years older than her and slightly taller with short black hair and dressed in a brown dress, spoke up. "Moana, your father is right. I know it's not my place as to speak as if I'm your parent but I personally don't like this. I have a bad feeling about this."

Moana looked down at the floor, not replying for a moment, her mind fighting between agreeing or disagreeing. The latter was gaining ground. _Why couldn't they just accept that these people needed their help?! We all saw their boat: it was practically old and littered with damage. If we sent them out there again, who knows what could happen to them!_

"Look, I know you guys are trying to help me, and I appreciate this. But we might be sending them to their deaths if we just tell them we can't help them." She said.

"Moana, it will be hard but we cannot risk ourselves going out there if we don't understand everything." Tui spoke up again. "If this island of theirs is dangerous, then we are putting our own people at risk. It's something not worth it."

"So what do we do with them then?!" Moana asked her father irritably. "What, do we just say: "Oh sorry, but we can't help you. You'll have to find someone else!" We can't do that! They might never find anyone else to help them."

"We don't have to send them away; they can stay here," Tui countered. "Moana, you must think about this properly. It's not worth it to go out and find this island of theirs, if it exists."

Moana just growled in frustration, slapping her hand onto her forehead. Why were they against her decision?! She was the damn chief of this island, they could not stop her! This was something for her, not them. She was the boss around here. Plus, if they left these people to die, then she would never forgive herself. Regardless of whether her parents agreed with her or told her otherwise, Moana just could not just answer of their please with a negative answer.

Surely her mother would see her sense. "Mum?" she looked at her, hoping for her to step in and say something. "Surely you can't think that leaving them there to die is the right thing? Please tell you don't!"

Sina bit her lip and looked down at the ground for a moment before answering. Moana saw this, however, and was not pleased.

"I can't believe this!" she exclaimed vehemently in annoyance, throwing her arms up in the air. She looked at all of them with a disappointed expression. " _None_ of you are willing to help them?"

"Moana, we haven't said we won't," her mother finally spoke up, trying to reason with her. "I know you want to help them but … y-you have to realise that we don't know what we're getting into. Plus, even if what they are saying is true, it's not going to be the best idea to try and go and rescue them. We'll be putting ourselves at risk."

Moana's face fell, unable to comprehend what her mother was saying.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I think your father is right. You need to realise that it's too much of a risk."

Moana sighed again, dragging her hands through her hair from her forehead all the way to the back of her neck. Frustration seethed through her. Seriously, what was their problem?! They can't just decide on this for her; she was the chief here. Yes, her parents were looking out for her and trying to keep her safe and she was happy about that, but still. It was not fair on Kakalina. And how could her father not trust them?

 _I mean, yeah, she was a little off sounding with her story of the island, but still …_ she thought to herself. _She might really need our help. Her people could be dying!_

But still, what if my parents are right. What if the others are right? I mean, I know the other villagers here did not accept the validity of their story, at least not completely.

No. This was her decision. She was the chief, and she would make the decision.

Moana stood up and looked down at everyone with a firm expression before announcing: "We're going to help them."

As expected, the other four protested vehemently. Her father got up and tried to reason with her, but she brushed him off. Her mother fared no better. Even her two helpers for her village duties were given a negative answer.

"Look," she said, silencing the four with her. "I know you want me to be careful, and I understand their story is not exactly a hundred percent credible, but I'm the chief and I've got to make sure that everyone ends up okay. I know what I'm doing."

She walked past them towards the door, trying not to look at their shocked expressions, the anger at her ignorance, and the sorrow that she could put herself in danger. When at the doorway, she stopped and said over her shoulder:

"Besides, I've gone out there before. It worked last time, didn't it?"

"Moana, that was different," Tui pointed out. "You don't have the sea helping you this time, and you don't have Maui there to protect you."

Moana stiffened for a moment, gripping the tarp tightly in her hand at the mention of the demigod's name. Then, without another word, she pushed it aside and walked outside.

As she stepped down onto the grass outside, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to cool herself down. Arguing with her parents was never a nice thing, as any child would know. Thankfully it had never happened very often between them – the last time was actually the night of when Tala had died and Moana had left to restore the heart. But whenever it did happen, she just felt … annoyed, pissed off, furious and … and sad. Why were her parents, and also the villagers trying to stop her from helping these people? Again, she knew that their story was a little dubious – which was the nice way to say it – but still! They thought it was too much of a risk helping them, but she knew that not helping them was certain death for anyone who might be alive on the island.

 _Might … not is. Oh great, now I'm doubting myself._

She pushed these negative thoughts aside and, looking up, saw a group of people on the beach through the opening in the trees and rushed down there. When she reached the sand, she saw Kakalina and the rest of her group standing near the boat and talking with some of the villagers. One of the three other men was sitting on the side of the boat and lazily throwing stones into the water whilst the other two were watching the fishing boats out in the sea about a hundred feet away.

"Kakalina!" Moana called.

The woman turned and smiled brightly when she saw the young chieftain running towards her. She greeted her with the customary 'aloha' and placed a hand on her arm when she reached them.

"Hey!" Moana said. "I just wanted to let you know that I've made a decision about this."

"Yes?" Kakalina inquired, her face falling a little in apprehension as she thought about the possible answer that the young chieftain was going to give her. The others behind her looked and listened intently, also eager to know what she had to say.

"My parents don't think it's right, but we're going to help you." Moana announced.

Before she could speak further, however, Kakalina embraced her tightly and kept exclaiming: "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Moana was sure her eyes were going to pop out of her head but, thankfully, the woman let her go and stepped back a pace, her hands over Moana's shoulders and holding a look as if she had been told her best dream was coming true.

"Thank you, Moana!" she said. "Thank the gods for this: I'm really grateful to you!"

Moana smiled. "No problem. We'll be leaving tomorrow, so you best get ready. I'll get some volunteers ready."

Kakalina nodded and began instructing the others in her group to make sure the boat was ready for when they would leave. As Moana watched them, and some of the villagers who wanted to help, work on the boat, she could not help but think of how her parents would feel about this. They were leaving tomorrow; a sure sign that this was something she was not going to change her mind on. It had been made and that was that. It did not make it any better though, and it certainly did not ease her discomfort.

 _Wow, I guess some of the guys here were right that I am stubborn._ She thought to herself. _My parents argue where it comes from, and I say it's both of them._

Nevertheless, she shut these thoughts out, looking out at the ocean as the sun began to set far away. It was as if she was looking ahead to a bright new future, a new dawn for her island, a new chapter in her life and those of the people they were going to help. It made her smile a little, as did seeing the beauty of the water glistening from the sun's glow.

Tomorrow was a big day for them, and soon Kakalina would be with her fellow people again. And Moana was glad to be helping her.


	4. Skull Island

**The next day**

The boat shook a little as rode down the crest of a small wave, the slow descent making Moana's stomach drop a little as she held onto a rope that was connected to the mast. As much as she loved sailing, she had to admit this was one part she did not like. It was even worse when the waves would grow to a large size and then the boat would sail down them to a regular level of the water. Once, this had made her sick when she had gone exploring shortly on the ocean shortly after returning to Montunui and she spent the rest of that day and part of the following morning recovering. Since then, Moana had been trying not to go into choppy waters, and if she did end up there she would try and think of other things. Family, Montunui, the sea and its warmth against her skin, Maui and her travelling across the ocean-

Her thoughts drifted back to him. _Maui._ As the boat steadied, she let go of the mast and walked towards the front of the vessel, her brown eyes looking out at the great crystal blue expanse that stretched out all around her; glistening in the sunlight. It was as if she were searching for something, as if she were looking for her accomplice, her friend, someone who she even regarded as part of her family. Whilst she was not exactly doing something like this, dear readers, her thoughts were indeed recollecting the time they spent together. Meeting on the deserted island, sailing across the ocean, battling the Kakamora, outwitting the gigantic crab, Tamatoa, in Lalotai and then facing Te Ka, who was eventually revealed to be Te Fiti in her corrupted and angry form. All of this had been with her demigod friend, the one who she had helped, and who had, in turn, helped her.

 _All that is so long ago_ she thought to herself, resting an arm on the other as lightly coughed, looking up at the blue sky above them, losing herself in its beauty. _Yet it feels like yesterday we were out here._

"Moana!"

The call made her jump a little. She looked over her shoulder to see Kakalina walking over with, as always, a smile on her face as she held a wooden object with string in her hand. Moana quickly put on a smile for the woman, greeting her friendly.

"Hey. How are you? Is everything alright?"

Kakalina nodded. "Yes. I was just showing some of your villagers the bow," she held up the object to Moana, it being a curved piece of brown wood that looked like a big C with a thin piece of string tied tightly to both of the open ends of the thing. "They're still very excited and have been practicing shooting sticks out into the ocean." She added with a giggle, and Moana too tittered, finding the idea of people playing with it as if it were a toy slightly amusing.

Truth be told, though, it had been something new for Moana and her people when Kakalina's group had showed it to them as they had never anything like it before. When it came to throwing anything sharp they just used their arms to hurl spears into the water or at any animals that they would come across on the islands, and if there was nothing sharp then they just used rocks. Kakalina showing them this 'bow' was genuinely intriguing for the people of Kalea, as if it were something bequeathed to her by the gods. Moana even heard one of the older women commenting on this, and she had to wonder if such a thing was possible. If so, then _how_ did Kakalina, or even her people learn about it? Maybe they had done something to be awarded it, or at least learn how to craft it. Either way, maybe it was something Moana and her village could start investing some time in making once they got back.

The two women stood side-by-side silently for a moment, Kakalina gazing out at the ocean as Moana had done moments before. Though they had known each other for almost two days now and were on the same boat travelling to the group's island, they had not spoken much since they left this morning. Then again, maybe Kakalina had felt a little guilty about Moana and the talk she had had with her parents this morning. Though she did not hear what they were saying, the three, along with an adult woman and an adult man – these being Moana's chief assistants – had been speaking for about fifteen minutes and it looked like it had been heated. Moana had gestured forcefully in the direction of the boats, waved her arms around as if she were trying to wave a rope at someone, and even once had snapped something that was slightly loud and had turned a few heads in their direction. Her parents and the two assistants had made similar gestures, and Kakalina had worried it would descend into a full-blown argument. In the end, they must have cooled down and come to some kind of truce before walking back. Moana had hugged her parents goodbye and bade them good luck, climbed onto the boat and announced to the village her farewell for the coming days and wished them luck, swearing she would be back soon with the people from their island destination. Then they set sail and … well, here they were now.

"Well," Kakalina spoke up after a few moments, hoping to ease the tension. "It certainly is a peaceful day for sailing." She commented.

Moana nodded. "Yeah, it is." She replied, glancing around their location with a small smile. "And everyone is happy to be out on the water again, well … for the most part."

The two looked behind them at the deck of the large ship, seeing the various groups of people working or resting or looking out at the sea around them as they ploughed on through the water towards their destination. Moana's ship held about twenty-five, men making up seventeen in total and women the remaining eight. To the left of their ship was another of the smaller Kalean vessels, this being crewed by a further sixteen – divided half each into men and women. Trailing behind with two ropes tied to it, one from the deck and the other from the top of the mast, was the boat Kakalina's group arrived on. Two of the men were sitting in it, keeping it steady as they followed about forty feet behind the main vessel. Despite the work and activity, everyone was in a good mood, serenity almost literally filling the air and the wind blowing them in the direction the group had pointed them in.

Seeing everything calm and in no way tumultuous, Moana could herself feel at ease. One of the things she always feared was losing order and control, which could potentially lead to anarchy should something bad happen. Her father had taught her during her teenage years that having control of one's self as well as the village and its people would bring prosperity to them all and stave off any deep-rooted divisions. Right now, that was going to be necessary. She knew there was a little underlying tension with her people and Kakalina's. Hopefully it would all be sorted out soon and this underlying wariness would soon dissipate.

Of course, they were having to do this without the help of the ocean, as her parents had briefly pointed out to her yesterday. You see, dear readers, the ocean had chosen Moana because of her care of the sea, its creatures and, more importantly, her want to explore and discover. That was what humans had been doing long before and after the heart was stolen, only stopping because ships were being lost due to attacks by sea creatures. Moana restoring the heart and enabling Te Fiti to bring life back to the ocean had ended it, as she found out once when she went sailing and was surprised to discover that there was no ocean to save her or move her in the right direction. She even intentionally threw herself off the boat once or twice, but nothing happened. The ocean had not abandoned her, but now that she was a way-finder, she would have to sail around the ocean without the water to guide her. Maybe it was for the best, but still … it made her really sentimental to relive those times on her journey, to feel the ocean not only as water but as something more.

"Moana, may I ask you something?" Kakalina asked.

"Oh!" Moana said, snapping out of her thoughts as her accomplice spoke. "Um, yes. Sure. Ask away." She replied.

"Is it true that what everyone is saying about you?" she asked, nodding her head in the direction of the others on the deck. "That you successfully restored the heart of Te Fiti? And that you met Maui and the two of you endured many trials and problems?"

Moana paused for a moment, looking down at the floor at the moment and then out to sea once more. She was not surprised to have Kakalina ask her about this; she had even been expecting it for a while. Yet, as ready as she had for the eventuality to recall the tale, as she had done many times before, she found herself hesitant, even a little pointless. Part of it was because she had told this tale so many times before, and part of it was …

"D-do you mind if I tell you later?" Moana said, her tone a little neutral. "Sorry, I just don't feel in the right frame of mind right now." She added, looking back at Kakalina with a slightly down expression.

Kakalina noticed this and nodded understandably. "Of course, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to both you with it," she apologised. A pause hung between them, the silence pierced the sound of water hitting the boat and the chatter of the people on the deck nearby. An idea came to Kakalina as she held up the bow. "Actually, if you want I can show you how to use the bow. It might come in handy," she offered.

Moana seemed to perk up at this and agreed, walking over with Kakalina to the side of the vessel as her new friend explained everything to her. How to use it, how to hold it, how to aim etc. Moana took it all in, her mind drifting from Maui and their adventures.

* * *

"Ah! Got it!" Moana exclaimed to herself.

Indeed she had, for the most part. Moana had managed to fire her first successful tiny spear with the bow, after having spent much of the last couple of days trying it out. Kakalina had been eager to show and assist her, and had been gracious enough to tell the young chieftain 'good job', even when it was clear she had not made it work as well as she wanted. It was nice but Moana wanted to keep trying. So far today, she had been practicing for about an hour and had ended up drawing a crowd on onlookers, including Kale and Koa.

As she lowered the bow, Koa and a male villager walked over.

"Not bad, but you need to keep the spear more level with your cheek," he said, his voice a usual monotone. "And don't be afraid to look with both eyes. It's not gonna bite you," he added.

"Yeah," Moana agreed. "Guess I just need to practice a bit more. I'll get there in the end." She added with a hopeful tone.

"Best get on with it then," he said, tossing a small stick in his hands into the water before walking away to see what his brother, who was at the front of the ship, was up to.

When he was out of earshot, the male villager spoke up. "Well, _he's_ certainly in a good mood. 'Mr Monotone',"

Moana giggled. "Yeah, maybe we should call him-" she deepened her voice in an attempt to imitate Koa's "'Mr Strong and Silent'" which made her and the villager chuckle. "But in all seriousness, he's a good one though," she added, going back to her regular voice.

Silence fell between them as she placed the bow on the floor and stretched a little. As much as she enjoyed it, using the bow for long periods of time made her shoulders a little stiff. So, she waved her arms around in circles to try and alleviate the stiffness.

"Hey, chief, can I ask you something?" the villager asked, his tone a little more apprehensive than before.

Moana picked up on this almost immediately and looked at him quizzically. "What is it, Kapono?" she asked the villager who had been a good friend of hers for the past two years or so, having grown up to be a handsome young man, one whom her mother often teased her about. "Is something bothering you?"

Kapono looked past her at Koa and Tama to see them conversing with a woman. Kakalina and Kale were out of sight, probably talking or resting as they had been up all night keeping watch to make sure they were going in the right direction. It was clear from the look on his face that he did not want to be heard, even by the other villagers as he looked at a small group of women sitting and chatting nearby, and another was kneeling down and had her hand in the water, enjoying the feeling of it run through her open fingers. Okay, they looked to be in the clear for the moment.

"Chief, do you … well, trust them?" he asked a little sheepishly. "I mean, don't you think that they are just pulling us on and trying to use us?"

Moana paused and took in his words. At first, she wanted to say no. How could Kakalina and her group even think of something like that? They had requested their help and were on a rescue mission to get back some people who were trapped on an island. Why would these people lie to them? What would they hope to gain from it?

But she quickly halted herself, thinking of the previous day when she had talked to her parents about this mission. _Even then I felt like something was off._ And there was always the chance that maybe something was. Maybe they were being duped, or at least not given the whole truth. If that was the case: what were they doing out here then? Were they on some kind of scouting run just to see if an island still had its people, or were they being led somewhere and never be seen again?

As she thought about it, Moana looked up at the boat that was still being tugged behind hers, seeing the same two men sitting on it, both looking at the main vessel. Moana had gotten to know their names as Afu and Tuala. The third one, the oldest of Kakalina's group, was called Matai. All three were very quiet and kept to themselves, often conversing away from the others when they had been on Kalea. Matai was the more open one and she thought he was okay, but Afu and Tuala were a different story. Moana had tried to talk to them, but they barely acknowledged her, answering her questions monosyllabically and without emotion, something that Tama had told her about and not to take it to heart as they had been that way even on their island. They preferred to stay in the boat, acting as if it were their home, barely moving from it. Matai was probably on the other boat, helping direct it and to keep it alongside the main vessel.

The others were, in her opinion, a little more interesting and exciting. As she had seen again for the umpteenth time over the last few days, Koa was a blunt one. He spoke his mind, caring little how others felt, and was a no-nonsense type of person. At first glance he would appear to be emotionally distant from people, wanting to prefer his own space. While that was partly true, Moana did see that he was also loyal and hardworking and often helped on something whether it was asked for or not. She had to admit that she liked that about him: he was a real 'strong and silent' type but had a good heart.

His brother Tama was mostly the opposite. Even though he often helped in things regardless of whether it was needed, he was a lot more cheerful than his younger sibling. Goofy and always up for a laugh, he was often easily excited, and tried to be positive even in the bleakest of times. Moana had spoken with him once or twice, and many of the villagers on the boat found him to be the one they enjoyed being around the most, often making them laugh. Moana even joked that when they returned to their island, Tama would probably end up staying with them and wanting to be the husband of one of the women in the village.

Kale, Kakalina's cousin, was a little like Maui in a way, the _old_ Maui that is. He had a slight ego and did like to boast a bit about the things he could do. He also liked his food, often eating more than anyone else on the ships. But, he was also kind at heart and was invaluable in helping ready the ship for the journey, thanks to his strength. He was also quite intelligent, knowing a lot about various stories of the gods and their journeys and acts, and of the various creatures that were rumoured to roam the seas. He had even told the kids of Kalea a story about how one such creature, a huge sea snake, would terrorise the fishing boats, demanding that immense tributes of the sea creatures be given to him, lest he decide to start snacking on the humans. It was only by the power of another, much friendlier sea creature, a huge sea turtle, that the snake was vanquished, and the island's people could live in peace once again. Like Koa and Tama, Kale was also good at heart and someone she was proud to have with them.

Then there was Kakalina, the leader of this group, and the one who Moana had grown to like. She was kind, funny and she was also quite a curious one too; her personality mirroring Moana's own outlook on the world. They had talked a lot and gotten to know one another to a good degree. Moana had even helped show her how to measure the stars last night when they were at the front of the ship. Some of the other crew members, either happily or in a disgruntled manner, had commented that Moana genuinely seemed to enjoy being in the woman's company. Moana could not deny it, but … she felt that Kakalina was being a little … _too nice._

 _It's like she's trying to hide something_ she had thought to herself last night.

She had, and still did put it down to it still being early days for them, that these feelings of insecurity would disappear over time and they would be close friends. Yet, Moana still reflected on the meeting when Kakalina had given a brief explanation of the island and almost flat-out ignored her inquiry into what was happening that made evacuating the people there so urgent, or even suggesting the possibility that no one was even there. Also, the woman seemed to be happy and bright around Moana and the villagers, yet discreet with Kale as if she did not want to be seen. Just this morning as Moana was waking up from her sleep, she had overheard Kakalina and Kale arguing in whispers about something. When they noticed her, they quickly went back to their normal selves and refused to discuss it with Moana, citing it was just, to quote: "A personal family issue."

 _It's obvious to anyone that it was more than that_ Moana mentally said to herself. _But I can't force it out of her, even if she is on my boat._  
 **  
**There was no doubt to the young chieftain's mind that there was more to Kakalina and her group than meets the eye, and she had an anxious feeling that soon they would find out what it was.

"Moana?" Kapono asked her again after a few seconds.

Moana mentally hit herself to bring her back to the present and looked up at him anxiously. "I can't deny it's crossed my mind," she told him, her expression clear with concern. "Maybe we'll find out what it is when we get there."

Kapono gave her a displeased look, hoping that she would immediately pull the group aside and try and get some answers out of them. Heck, he would do it for her if she wanted: he was eager to know what they were up to. Starting something like that on the vessel, though, was not really the best idea. Maybe Moana's approach was best, even if he found it rather ridiculous.

"Chief!"

Someone called out from atop the mast. Moana and Kapono and everyone else on deck looked up to see a young man of about twenty-eight years holding onto the mast with one hand, and his other cupped around his mouth and looking down at her. When their eyes met, he pointed out ahead of them.

All eyes followed his arm and at once everything fell quiet, save for the occasional muttering and a gasp of shock. Moana mouthed something as she walked forward towards the front of the ship, Kapono and several others following close behind her as they looked on in amazement.

Before them was a grey wall, a sort of thick mist that seemed to rise higher than Moana thought possible into the sky like some kind of wall. Kapono looked left and right and saw, what looked like miles away, the wall slightly curving inward a little. _So it's not stretching on forever._ In front of him, Moana stared ahead, eyes transfixed on the greyness, the wisps of the mist hanging hauntingly over the edge of the water. Just looking at them made her, and no doubt the others on the three ships feel very uneasy.

"Moana," Kakalina's voice spoke up as said woman walked over, looking up at the grey wall that loomed over as they approached. "We're here."

* * *

Even though she did not believe in ghost stories, Moana had to admit that this was starting to feel like one. All around her was nothing but thick mist, so much so that she could barely see in front of the vessel. Even the back of the ship was largely obscured, the silhouettes of the crew there look like shadow people. As for the sound, it too was almost non-existent unless it was under ten or so metres from one's location. Normally this was not a bad thing as the lack of sound was relaxing, but here it was chilling, nervous, even downright nerve-racking. Barely any sound above that of the water lightly splashing against the side of the ship was audible, and all conversations elsewhere were muffled as if the people were talking with something clamped around their mouths. As for sunlight, not very much was breaking through, only enough to keep the world immediately around them lit up. It was as if this this place was doomed to be silent as well as hidden from the rest of the world, cut off and vacant of any form of life that would otherwise thrive in this sort of environment out on the ocean. It made Moana shiver as she nervously kept an eye on the other boats in fear that they would disappear into the mist, never to be seen again. For all she knew, maybe something was already watching them, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"Chief," came the voice of one of the women kneeling nearby and Moana looked to see her dip her hand into the water and shiver a little in response. "The water. It's cold."

"What?" Moana asked, surprised at the woman's answer.

"It's cold," the woman repeated. "And not just regular ocean cold, I mean actual cold. Like it's never even felt warmth before."

Now that made the young chieftain even more nervous as she stared ahead into the greyness again, wishing that her eyes could pierce the thick mist and see where they were going, hoping that they were not about to run into any danger. Silence filled the air, her heart beating slowly as if it were hesitant to move in fear that it would draw something to them. Seconds felt like minutes, and minutes seemed to drag on into hours. _Oh, where are we?!_

Moana looked around and saw Kakalina standing near one of the men, her face holding a look that seemed to be a mixture of firm confidence, yet was also nervous. She walked over to the woman.

"Kakalina," Moana said, her voice seeming to be muffled by the mist as barely anyone around them turned at the sound of her voice. "Where exactly are we? I think we should turn around."

"No, no, we're on the right track," Kakalina informed her in as calm a voice as she could. "We should be there in a few minutes. We'll be out of this fog soon."

What?! The island was in the middle of this fog?! How the hell could they find it? No, _why_ were they even living on this island? How could they be somewhere that had fog around it?! Suspicion rose within her, not just because of what she thought about Kakalina and her group but also the entire situation they were in. Moana was starting to think that this entire island travelling was just a ruse, a sham to get her and her people to go somewhere unknown, and therefore potentially dangerous.

"Look!"

All eyes looked ahead once again as sunlight began to shine through a growing break in the fog. The sight of it made the crews of the three boats shield their eyes for a moment as if it were the first time they had encountered such a thing. After a moment, all looked on and were astounded at what they saw.

About a mile ahead of them, stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions was an island, a _huge_ island. Even from their position, it looked as if it were right in front of them. A long row of mountains stuck out from behind the tops of a long line of sheer black cliffs, the waves of the sea slamming against them with a vengeful ferocity like they would in a storm. To the far right was a break in the cliffs and a wide waterway that seemed to travel into the island's interior. On the left side were more cliffs and then a sudden end and a row of beaches with lush green jungle situated not far from them. Along the top of the cliffs and even up the sides of the mountains was more greenery, covered by a large but thinner layer of mist. High above the island was complete blue and the sunlight shining down from the sky above.

"This is it!" Kakalina said, her voice now excited at the prospect of seeing her fellow people again. "Moana, we need to head to the beaches. We'll be closer to the village there."

* * *

Unbeknownst to those on the boats, something high in the mountains, hidden from view by the distance and the mist, was watching them. Obscured by the jungle that covered the side of the raised ground, it observed the three tiny boats that turned towards the beaches. They were advancing as if unaware of where they were, unaware of what they were getting themselves into.

More of them had come, so more of them would soon meet a grisly end.

Skull Island was about to about to see bloodshed.


	5. Deserted

Even as the boats had approached the beach, even as the crews unloaded onto the shores, even as the group of about fifteen, including Kakalina, Kale and Kapono, started to explore inland a little, Moana had to admit she wanted to leave. Even though the jungle, dense but less so than on Kalea, the grass and even the ground itself was very comforting and reassuring to her – it helped her think of the safety of land and that they were not out there on the water waiting for something to tear them up – she just felt this unease in the air. Something heavy and uncomfortable seemed to surround the party, as if something was watching them, waiting to strike. She had tried to brush it off as just the wariness of being on a new island – this had been the same for her and her family when they had landed on Kalea – but here it … well, something different. It did not feel like it would dissipate after some time. She really felt something was observing them, and whatever it was she did not like it.

As Moana walked past the decaying form of a fallen tree, following close behind Kale, who was leading the group, she looked again at her surroundings. Even though this island was making her very uneasy, she had to admit the various colours of the flowers were beautiful. She had just passed one with a green stem and was covered in turquoise petals and she almost picked it. Kale was quick to stop her though, saying that some of the flowers were dangerous; the one Moana had seen was apparently going to give her a rash if she touched it. From then on, she made sure not to go near it but just admire it from afar.

"Okay, not far now." Kale spoke up from the front. "Just a little further."

 _He said that ten minutes ago_ Moana thought to herself, wondering just how far inland they were actually going. Would they lose sight of the beach and the boats?

On and on they walked, passing several more moss covered fallen logs and enormous bushes and vegetation along a trail that was gradually noticeably becoming more dirt-like. Kale pointed out as they neared the village that they would probably see the remains of old structures, something that he explained were what the inhabitants' ancestors had built to worship the gods and goddesses of the island. He gave a little detail of them, explaining some as the usual ones that Moana and her people had, namely Te Fiti and Te Ka. Others, however, such as a large sea creature whose name she did not hear, and another that was predatory in nature and incredibly devious yet could be merciful – when it wanted to be. When one of the Kaleans asked him what it was, he said he could not recollect it and then began to talk about a few of the others, something that Moana and several of the others from her island found strange considering the amount he knew, or should know about his own home island.

"Moana!" Kakalina's voice came to her again.

She looked behind her to see said woman rushing up to her and falling in step beside her. As Moana looked at her, she caught a brief look of suspicion from Kapono, his expression a clear hint that he stood by what he told her on the boat earlier on.

"So how do you feel about the island?" Kakalina asked the young woman.

"Oh! Uh, yeah it's great!" Moana replied, forcing a titter out as she tried to lighten the tension around her. "It's nice. The flowers are great, and I can't wait to see this village of yours." She added with slight enthusiasm.

Kakalina face saddened a little when she said this, something that Moana picked up on quickly. "Oh, are you okay?"

Kakalina nodded. "Yeah, yeah. It's just … I hope everyone in this village is okay. But they might not be," she replied, her tone becoming low and emotionless on the last part of her sentence, as if resigned to the fact that they would not find everything okay there.

A pause hung between them, pierced only by the sound of the chattering behind them and the sound of their feet landing on the path or someone pushing a branch or part of a bush out of their way.

"Um, Kakalina?" Moana inquired. "On Kalea, you mentioned some calamities and dangers that happened on this island. What were they?"

Kakalina's eyes drifted to the ground for a moment as if lost in thought, wondering what she should, or _could_ tell her. Her hand fiddled nervously with part of her brown dress and she began to bit her lower lip, though not too hard so she did not draw blood. Moana saw this and knew now that there was something Kakalina was not telling her.

"Kakalina?" she asked, her tone a little more demanding now.

"Okay, we made it!" Kale's voice called out from up ahead and all heads turned to look in his direction; a look of relief finding its way to Kakalina. "Now stay close a-"

He froze, going still as a statue, hand outstretched as it was pushing a low branch out of the way. Slowly, he looked over his shoulder to reveal an aghast look of speechlessness. Oddly enough, the look on his face was telling those with him: _"You have to see this!"_ Curious, they moved forward, forming small band along the line of vegetation.

What they saw shocked them.

Before them was a huge open space, much like that of the village on Kalea. Large groves of trees were dotted around the space there were some large rocks scattered about too. However, that was not what drew their attention, for the remains of many wooden huts were strewn across the ground. Some were badly damaged, others were completely flattened. All had been affected. Some were missing roofs, others their sides. One small wooden hut had its centre flattened and another about fifty feet away had been completely smashed into ruins; one weak and cracked part of what had been a section of wall being all that stood. Other buildings near and far away from them were in similar states.

And what stood out the most; there were no people in sight, a haunting fact that sent shivers down the group's spines. It was understandable given the way the place looked, but that did not make it any less nervous.

Silence hung over them like a cloud, eyes scanning the remains of the village, some heads turning to look at one another. Nobody even wanted to speak, but what could they say? The Kaleans had never come across anything like this before, and the people from this island were just as shocked so it was clear they had not expected their village to be in this state. Moana saw Kakalina holding an expression of complete disbelief: eyes unblinking, mouth open a tiny fraction as if she were about to let out a gasp. Seeing it just made her uncomfortable.

Koa, who had been near the back, cleared his throat spoke up: "Alright, we may as well get moving. Can't stand here all day."

With that, the group began to walk forward into the village, though most were silent, save for the occasional word or mutter of shock uttered as the group split up and began to explore the remains of the village. As Kakalina walked into the remains of the village, Moana glanced over at Kapono and another woman standing nearby. They met her gaze and could see the nervousness and uncertainty. The young chieftain knew that something was wrong here, and she was glad that she was not the only one who had noticed it. Kapono especially seemed to be saying: _"See what I told you? I don't like this."_

 _And neither do I_ Moana mentally told herself. _Still, we might as well see if there's anyone here. Though, I doubt it._

She walked into the village, quickening in her pace as she tried to catch up with Kakalina.

As the group gradually dispersed, the full extent of the damage became more apparent. It had been noticeable that everything was damaged in some form when they had emerged from the jungle but being up close just made them realise more of how devastated the place was. Not only had the houses been flattened, but everything that had been in them was either scattered across the ground or smashed to pieces too. Food, wooden buckets, fishing nets and poles, even the blankets and covers used for people sleep on and under had been torn to shreds. Whatever had come here had made sure that nothing would be affected.

Kakalina stepped through a huge gap in what appeared to have once been a wall of a small hut, her eyes searching the surrounding floor. Nothing. The wooden planks that had been the floor were torn and cracked with other sections of walls scattered all over them in broken bits. A melon lay splattered across the floor and the grass outside and several fishing nets had been torn apart and were strewn everywhere. She sighed heavily, knowing that this place had once been the place of happiness, safety and love for a family, and their neighbour's family, and probably even their neighbours' family too. But no more. Nothing was left.

"Kakalina?"

She looked over her shoulder to see Moana standing in the gap, looking at her concerned.

"I'm alright, Moana," she replied, looking away to scan her surroundings melancholically again, her voice clearly meaning the opposite of her spoken words. "It's just … just a bit overwhelming."

Moana gave a slight nod and looked out at a few surrounding buildings. One of them situated, near a rock, had been more fortunate than this one but was missing its roof and part of the side. Another to the right of that one next to a large grove of trees was the exact opposite: it was completely levelled and only a single wooden plank with a sheet of tarp gently swaying in the light breeze attached to it was all that remained. A fallen tree lay on the grass covered ground in front of them and, looking up at the grove and even at the jungle a few hundred feet away on the other side of the village, she could see that more trees had been pushed aside or flattened like twigs – by that though she did not know but it was obvious it was by something big.

Thinking about all this made her thoughts fall on the fact that there were no people present here in the village, obviously save for them. She could only imagine the terror that they must have felt when this … this calamity, whatever it was, struck. Another glance around the village remains put an image of it all playing out in her mind: fires, screaming people, panicked and terrified children not knowing what was going on, lives and homes destroyed and extinguished. As for those who would have escaped, she could imagine them looking back at what once was their home and seeing it literally taken from them before their very eyes. Everything they had worked for, every moment they had enjoyed, hated and despaired with their fellow villagers – all of it was swept away by this.

"Let's search the river." Kakalina spoke up, her tone more monotonous now as if she had resigned herself to the fact that there was not going to be anyone left. "See if there's boats left. And we should check out the shrine too."

Moana nodded and walked alongside Kakalina as they moved further into the village. As they passed the grove of trees, Moana saw miles away in the distance a huge row of mountains, the same she had seen when they arrived on the island earlier on. They stood there like imposing gods, observing the minute humans as they moved about below in what had been a settlement. A few small ridges were also present near the mountains, the tops of them towering over the tops of the trees at the other end of the village as well as those near the mountain. As for this river Kakalina had mentioned, Moana had yet to see but probably would soon once they went in further enough.

"What do you think's happened to the people here?" Moana asked her. "And the village for that matter?" she added, casting another glance at the devastated surroundings.

Kakalina did not answer straight away: she rather moved on a little faster and began muttering to herself whilst her head turned from one direction to the next as if she were trying to remember where everything in the village was. Moana pursed her lips in annoyance at the woman's avoidance of her questions. Why was she doing this? And moreover, why was she acting as if she was here for the first time? This was her home, she should know where everything is for crying out loud, not right now. And what had happened here? And if something bad had taken place, then where were the people, or at least any bodies?! Moana felt that Kakalina knew what happened, or at least had an idea of what might have caused this. She rushed after her and reached out to grab her by the shoulder and turn her and look at her straight in the face. She wanted answers, and she wanted them now.

"Okay, there it is!" Kakalina suddenly exclaimed, pointing ahead of her towards the other end of the village where a few rocks lay in a line, though one of them looked as if it had been broken in two.

Moana looked and saw the remains of two large half walnut shaped buildings, both having large holes in their roofs and parts of the sides missing, that stood about a hundred feet away. She lowered her arm and took in the structure more, seeing several tall wooden things that were bent broken in the middle. To the left of these buildings was a small wooden, square shaped building that was built next to one of the rocks. This one looked largely undamaged compared to the others in the village. Maybe this was the 'temple' that Kakalina had referred to.

"C'mon, Moana. We need to check the docks." Kakalina told her and rushed off ahead before the chieftain could stop her. Moana, sighing in annoyance, followed.

* * *

When they reached the two large dock buildings, they saw that the damage was more internal rather than external. The interior had a large rectangular hole dug into the ground and that was filled with water and led out to the wide river outside. A walkway ran along both sides of the water trench, both damaged and torn to bits in most places, and the one on the right had a huge hole in the wall. In the water was a small oval shaped wooden raft with a single small mast that was broken from about halfway up and was half-sunk into the trench. The opening into the river was about twenty feet in height, more than enough for the boat to go in and out of the dock. Kakalina had commented about this being a bad thing for the village and that whatever had done this was making it clear that nothing would escape. Again, though, when Moana had questioned Kakalina about the possibilities of what could have caused this, she simply replied with: "Something dangerous."

 _Really?!_ Moana's sarcastic thought came as she took a step outside and looked back at the village, seeing the others in the group milling about as they scoured the ruins. Oh, this was getting frustrating and, quite frankly, worrying. They had found nothing but ruins, no bodies, and whenever she tried to question Kakalina about this situation, she would act very evasive and even ignore her. _Maybe Koa or Kale would help me._

Moana looked over at the temple nearby and saw no one near it. Curious, she walked over, seeing the devastation on the outside was no more than a few holes and part of the roof missing. It was about twenty feet high and the same in length, and the doorway was just under half of that. Moana walked over to the doorway and, seeing that the tarp lay on the floor, looked inside.

The room before her was big and square and there was what looked like a large stone table at the other end opposite the door, though she could not see properly because there was not much light coming in. Scattered over the floor were various pieces of tarp, burnt out torches – this explained the lack of light that would originally have been there – and leaves and branches as well as bits of the ceiling. A shelf of small pots lay smashed across the floor. As with all other buildings in the village, this one has not been spared. It looked like it had been ransacked, as if those who had attacked this village were of the idea that whoever these people worshipped were stupid and should start worshipping their own gods or goddesses or whatever. As bad as it looked, Moana did hope this was done by other people. If not, then whatever did this was really something she did not want to cross.

Gingerly, she stepped into the temple and looked around, taking in the mess and the holes and destruction of what had been things used for possible worship, rituals and other things. As she looked down at the floor, she saw something small with a pair of vine feet sticking out from under two pieces of tarp. She knelt and picked it up, seeing it was a doll made crudely of vines stuck together with two arms, legs and a couple of vines protruding from what was a bad attempt to make a torso and then formed into a ball that was obviously meant to stand for the head.

 _A doll_ she thought to herself, feeling a wave of sadness wash over her.

Seeing it made her realise there were children here too, somewhere. Her mind wandered to where they were now, wondering if they were okay or even alive given the state of the village. One of them must have been in here with his or her parents when this … disaster, or whatever it was struck and made everyone flee in a panic. The child, probably thinking they were going to return, must have put the doll somewhere here in an attempt to hide it, only for the ones behind the devastation to come here and ransack the place. A sigh passed Moana's lips as she ran a finger along the front of the doll, knowing that the fate of its owner had probably already been sealed by now.

Moana looked down at the pieces of tarp all over the floor and picked up one of them. This one had a drawing of something on it. At first it was hard to distinguish anything, but another scan of it with her eyes told Moana that it looked like some kind of … insect? It looked fierce and terrifying with big eyes, large pincer-like claws and a long body that looked to be lined with large knobs and not very clear scales. _Nice. I'm glad it's the size of my thumb._

Another tarp held a more disturbing picture, one of some kind of animal that walked on two legs, yet the body was horizontal and had a long tail that seemed to trail out behind it. The main part of the body had two long, powerful arms and it led to a beastly-looking head. The mouth was partly open in what Moana thought was some kind of roar. The eyes looked beady in the picture but she could only imagine seeing it for real: they would make her pass out with fear, and probably also make her soil herself.

 _These things look like they belong in Lalotai!_ She mentally told herself, her mind momentarily reflecting upon when she had gone there and seen the many grotesque, nightmarish creatures abundant in that place with Ma-.

"Moana?" Moana yelped in surprise and turned to see Kale standing in the doorway.

He chuckled. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump," he apologised but Moana reassured him and tittered. "Have you found anything, or anyone?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Nothing, apart from this doll." She held said item to emphasise her point. "It must have been left here by a child." She added, her tone saddening a little.

Kale nodded, his eyes looking down towards the ground for a moment as he thought about the children of this village. But, there was no time for that now. He knew they had to move on.

"Well, we haven't found anything in this village. We might need to go to the neighbouring one not far from here," he said.

"Uh, what?" Moana looked up at him, surprised.

"Yeah, we have another village nearby." Kale explained. "Not as big as this one but still has a decent chunk of people residing there. Maybe they're all there." His tone went noticeably lower but still tried to sound hopeful on the last sentence.

He moved out of the doorway, leaving Moana alone to stand amongst the remains of what had been a temple. She sighed a mixture of annoyance and sadness: the former being that it seemed they would be going around in circles looking for people who were probably gone by this point, or at least were somewhere even Kakalina and her group did not know about. The latter was because she could not help but feel this way for the people who had been living here and were now probably scattered, terrified – maybe even dead.

 _And what does that mean for us?_ She asked herself ominously.

Hopefully, the same fate would not befall them.


	6. The attack

**Later, that night**

Even though they were on an island that was completely new to them, that held an air of uncertainty and unease, and had even gone as far to set up their camp in the middle of the first village they had explored, Moana had to admit that there was a large clear night sky above them. The stars were numerous in number, some more brighter than others as if they were holes in a huge and endless black tarp that covered the sky above them. Maybe there was an everlasting sun behind it, or maybe there were something more, something much deeper and significant that people had yet to discover. Maybe they would soon, but for now Moana was focused on making sure that everything was in order. The tents were up, the boats had been brought from the beach and down the river that ran past the village, or its remnants, and everyone was accounted for. A few people were milling about amongst the ruins, which were barely lit up by a few torches that had been lit and placed around the village. Most were asleep, and some had advised Moana to do the same.

Yet, she just found it difficult to do so. Why, you might ask? Well … there were a multitude of reasons, dear readers. Firstly, she was just simply not tired and had decided to try and wear herself out a little by looking up at the stars, hoping that their beauty would be enough to help send her off to sleep into dreamland – if the gods willed for it to happen. The second, it was the island. Though no one had actually said it aloud, at least to the best of her knowledge, she could tell from the expressions on their faces, all of which reinforced her own anxiety, that her fellow tribes people _and_ the island's inhabitants were nervous here. The apprehension seemed to literally be hanging in the air, waiting for the tension to build and then suddenly break in some sudden and disastrous change of events. Being here made Moana feel very uneasy; she wanted to leave. Right now, if it were possible, but because Kakalina had insisted and the fact that it was night she had decided to put it off until tomorrow.

And as for the third reason, it was the aforementioned person. Kakalina's attitude had changed a little since they had arrived earlier today. She had become more abrasive, blunt and seemed to be set on looking for someone, or something. Moana had chalked it up to her being concerned for her fellow people, as she did with Kale, Tama, Koa and the others, but earlier on whilst she had joined in the search in a smaller village slightly further inland, she had heard some arguing. Kale and Kakalina, who had excused themselves to the edge of the village, had been exchanging some words and it was getting very loud and vehement between them, but Moana stayed hidden behind a barely standing wall and listened in. From what she gathered, Kakalina had berated him for not wanting to go further inland to find the missing people, or for something along those lines. Kale had then argued back at them having to be careful about that what they did here, and Kakalina just spoke over him and said that he was stupid for trying to have them abandon their own people to the "dangers of the island," as Kakalina had said. After another minute or two of more arguing, they decided to end it there and walked away from each other and into the village, leaving Moana to ponder over their words.

 _What the hell did they mean by dangers, something that I've asked constantly and gotten no answers about?_ She would mentally ask herself. _And where exactly is everyone?_

All of these questions bore no answers, and she knew that asking the two, or anyone from their group for that matter was going to be pointless because they would act evasive or give her a half-baked answer at best. She had talked with two others from her group and they shared her suspicions of the seven, one of them even suggesting that they just pack and leave them here as the man thought that they were going to betray them or something later. Though Moana had scolded him for such an idea, she had to admit that maybe something like that was not as far from her own thoughts as she would have preferred.

She sighed, kicking a small piece of wood that had been the roof of the building her 'tent' was in, looking up at the stars spread out across the huge night sky above her to soothe her nerves. Again, as precarious as the situation was, she did find this sight very comforting and uplifting as if they were beacons of hope for her not to give in and to stay strong for her people. Such feelings made her feel relaxed but also quite melancholic, reminding her of the great journey she went on four years ago and how she had lost her grandmother before it, the horrific dreams of everything being taken from her should she fail, something which almost became a reality when she and Maui had argued, and he left and-

 _No!_ She could not bring herself to think of something like that. She had to remind herself that those times were in the past. She had overcome them, saved her island and its people and they were better than before. Plus, thinking about them now was only going to impede on how they were going to carry out the search further tomorrow.

As you would expect, dear readers, the group had filled Moana and her people in on what was on this part of the island. Two rivers traversed inland from the coast, the one in this village, and the other further to the west at a distance of about two miles or so. Both went far into the interior of the island before meeting up and conjoining as they carried water into a large lake that was near the base of the start of the mountain chain, the place being a small fishing area for the island's inhabitants. The way there was covered with thick jungle, swamps, small fields and open areas much like this one, and various ridges dotted the island. Moana had asked Kakalina how big the island was, but the woman told the young chieftain that she simply did not know because her people had not travelled across the entirety of it. The furthest some of them had been was the mountain chain to the north and along the coasts both east and west for as far as they could go as, apparently, large rockfalls and sheer canyons separated this part of the island from the rest of it, or at least another section like the one the villagers had settled on. Pretty much anything beyond that was considered unknown. Later, when Moana overheard and saw Kapono question Koa and Kale about anyone from the village having previously been sent beyond the mountains or to sail along the coast and scour out anything else about it, the former had simply responded with a nonchalant 'I don't know', as did the latter, though he had a more anxious look on his face.

That, again, had confirmed to Moana that something was definitely up here. And it made her all the more nervous about this place.

 _We need to leave._ She mentally told herself, making the decision then and there. _Tomorrow, we're leaving whether Kakalina likes it or not._

Yes, that was the best course of action they could take. The island was too big and the scenes they had seen today only confirmed that something was very wrong here and that they had to leave as soon as possible. Tomorrow, they would search for a few hours, then they would leave.

And if Kakalina and the others kicked up a fuss about it, well … Moana did not like to dwell on the thoughts currently in her head right now. A chieftain would never want anything like this to befall anyone, even if they were a little unbearable.

Voices nearby made her look to see a group of three men bade each other goodnight before moving into their makeshift 'tent', which was basically set up using several wooden poles that had been parts of the walls of some buildings and draping a tarp over the top to act as a roof. Two of them went underneath it and laid down, quietly chatting to each other so as not to disturb anyone that might already be asleep. The third man moved off towards the treeline, quickly becoming a silhouette in the darkness.

 _Maybe I should get some rest_ Moana mentally told herself, heading over to her tent, which was a few tarps draped over some poles and with the back of it being up against one of the large rocks that was dotted around the village. As she laid down on the blanket she had set on the ground and laid on her back, Moana could only think about what tomorrow would bring. It was going to be a long day, in one way or another, drama or no drama.

 _Just hope a good night sleep keeps me prepared for it!_

* * *

"Ah, that's better."

Stepping out from behind a tree after pulling up his shorts, Tamar tore the leaf off a low-hanging branch and wiped his hands clean as best he could. All that water he drank earlier really gave him the need to relieve himself. Thankfully no one saw him.

As she tossed the leaf back on the ground, he too quickly looked up at the night sky, entranced by its sheer beauty. He had to admit that this island did have its nice side, despite the heavy atmosphere of fear and apprehension that seemed to hang over everyone. Even he, who was quite a large, muscular person, felt nervous being here and wanted to leave as soon as possible. He had seen the chief be stressed out by this and by the people who lived here.

 _What is it with them, anyway?_ He thought to himself. _Why were they so hell-bent on staying here? The sight of the villages and lack of people not make them realise that this place was probably cursed or something?! Oh, gods help us!_

He knew he was not the only one who felt this way about them; the others had told him so. Even Moana had voiced her concerns with him and one of the women earlier today and they returned the same feelings. Tamar had told her that they were hiding something and that they should go tomorrow and, if the group refused to come with them, leave them behind. The chief scolded him, and he had kept his mouth shut, but still liked to entertain the thought of them leaving. The group did not deserve to come with them, especially with the way they were acting.

Tamar tossed the leaf to the ground and stifled a yawn as he began to head back in the direction of the village just beyond the treeline ahead of him. He would dwell more on this tomorrow, but now it was time for him to sleep.

CRACK! He spun round in response to the loud noise, his eyes scouring the darkness for anything that looked to be out of place. The leaves swayed in the light breeze. Shadows creeped up on him from all directions as if wanting to grab him. Yet nothing out of the ordinary moved, not a sound or a squeak.

 _What was that?_

Tamar took a few steps further into the forest, searching his surroundings with a watchful eye. He looked above, seeing the night sky just barely visible in breaks between the leaves and branches. One branch was long and thick and stuck out over two trees, its size stopping it from moving in the breeze. Tamar went on a few more steps, looking left and right, his ears open, ready to detect any noise that seemed unusual.

Something glistening in the brief moonlight caught his attention. Looking over to a small rock on the ground about ten feet away, he saw a long silvery trail of something trailing down the side of it and dripping onto the ground. Curious, he walked over to it and knelt down and touched it with his finger and held it up to his face, turning his appendage so he could analyse it more easily. It glistened in the moonlight that came through the gaps in the trees above. Tamar sniffed it and immediately withdrew his head, gagging slightly at the pungent odour that, thankfully, emanated to a few inches from it. He looked down at the main pile of it again, wondering what it was.

Something wet landed on his shoulder and ran down his arm. More of this silver stuff, though it was in a much greater quantity than what was on the ground before him. The stench of this one was enough to make him cough violently and fall on his side as he tried to wipe it off, covering his hand in the mass of wet and sticky fluid. What the hell was this stuff?! Where was it coming from? Was it rain, some kind of strange rain that fell only on this island?

Tamar looked up and froze as he saw a pair of glowing gold eyes, each one looking to be about the size of a small fishing boat, glaring down at him from above.

One second passed. Two. Three.

He screamed and the eyes, along with a huge V-shaped mouth, lunged towards him, silencing him and his life.

* * *

"What the hell?"

"What was that?"

"I think it was a scream?"

"Who would be screaming out there?"

"Is that Tamar?"

All these questions, and yet no answers. More people emerged from the tents and the nearby boats, all eyes looking towards the jungle with concerned and terrified expressions. Moana too looked on with fear, wondering what to do. She looked at the others, mostly to her left, and then at the jungle.

 _We need to get out there and see if the person's okay._

"Alright, listen up!" Moana announced, her authoritative voice coming in as she rushed over to a group of her villagers. "We need to head out there and find him."

A few nodded in agreement, though some muttered hesitantly about whether it was a good idea if them going out there to see what was going on was a good idea because of the screaming.

"No, Moana! Don't!" an all-too familiar voice called from nearby. Everyone in the immediate vicinity looked to see Kakalina rushing over to them, who again insisted they do not go out there.

"Why?" Moana asked bluntly in an annoyed manner. "What is it you're not telling us, Kakalina? And don't give me any excuses!" she said, her tone becoming demanding.

Kakalina went to reply, but a woman a few metres away called out for everyone to look at the trees. All heads turned once again, the conversations falling silent, to see a pair of huge gold, glowing eyes staring back them, hovering about twenty feet above the ground. For a moment, no-one moved, yet the unease in all went up threefold.

Then, the eyes rose out of the trees and high into the air, revealing they were attached to a long, insect-like head with a pair of visible pincers snapping open and shut every second, the movements normal but menacing to the people. A long, knobbly neck came down from the back of the head and joined onto a huge body, also covered in spikes and knobs, that was partly covered by the treetops about fifty feet below the head. The size and length of the body was unknown to those looking on, but they had to guess that the legs holding it up were just probably just like the rest of it.

What really drew the attention of the group, though, were the huge forearm blades that stuck out of the front of the body, each one looking like a normal human arm before curving into a kind of hook. The lower part of the arms were lined with sharp spikes that looked like they could shear a wooden boat in two and cut down trees as if they were sticks. They lowered a little, as did the creature's head as it looked left and right in its observation of the small fires scattered around the village remnants, and in particular the tiny figures that were looking back at it.

Though every was silent and still as they stared up in awe at this creature, Kakalina gulped and back away a pace as she began to mutter: "Run! Run, now!" her voice full of terror.

Moana glanced at her in alarm. "What's gonna happen, Kakalina?" she asked.

Before the woman could answer, nervous exclamations drew the attention of the two back to the creature. Moana's face went ghostly white and Kakalina gasped.

The creature was now standing up on its back legs, arms outstretched as if about to embrace a fellow member of its kind. The gold eyes glimmered brightly in the moonlight and a low, yet high sound that sounded like a growl sounded from the creature. Moana and those around her began to back away in fear, terrified that this creature was going to do something. Some were even turning and rushing further into the village or into their tens in the hopes they would be able to save themselves.

 _ **YYYAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!**_

The creature leapt into the air and, blades raised in a manner as if they were about to embed themselves into prey, landed with an earth shuddering thud in the village just behind the group. Almost immediately, it swiped a bladed arm at one of the nearest tents, tearing it apart and sending two of the people inside it through the air into another part of the village.

Pandemonium broke out as people scurried about to escape the creature as it turned and marched towards the main part of the group near where Moana was. Two of the Kaleans, a man and a woman, rushed forward with spears and threw them at the creature. To their horror, the nimble weapons simply bounced off its thick leg. The creature let out a high-pitched screech as if it were mocking them and swiped the ground under them. Both were thrown into the air; the man falling to the ground with a thud that immediately expelled all life from his body. The woman was less lucky as she was caught by the mouth of the creature. Before she could even scream, it clamped it jaws down onto her, making her emit a strangled moan of pain that made anyone who was left shudder. With a final jerk of its head, she disappeared down the creature's throat, followed almost immediately by a sickening crunch as what was left of her was chewed up in its mouth.

Ducking behind a rock, Moana and three others, two other women and another man, looked on in terror as they saw the creature literally swallow one of their tribe members whole. It made Moana sick to her stomach and she had to look away as the creature crunched down once more on what would be left of the woman, before swallowing her remains. With a satisfied growl, the creature turned away from the group and, both thankfully but unthankfully, began to pursue a group of others as they panicked and ran in different directions.

"Gods help us!" one of the women breathed, her voice laden with terror.

"We gotta get out here! We have to leave!" another of them said. "Chief?!"

Moana did not reply but had her head dipped towards the ground, trying not to let them see the tears fall. How could this happen?! How could this happen to them, they were not doing anything wrong! They were here to help! Oh, this was all her fault!

"Moana?" a hand rested on her shoulder and she inhaled deeply, trying not to be overwhelmed by it all.

"I-I'm okay." She replied, sitting up and looking on helplessly with the others as the creature took another swipe at a group of the tribe, taking out three of them and sending their bodies scattering across the village. "You guys get to the boat. I'm gonna try and find anyone that's still alive and see if we can distract this thing."

"Chief, you can't!" the man protested. "You won't la-"

 _ **YYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!**_

The roar seemed to fill the air and halted all activity. The group, along with all any survivors, and even the creature, turned their heads to the jungle and saw another pair of huge golden eyes emerge. It was another of those creatures, and this one was much bigger as it was standing on all four legs and loomed much higher over the treeline than the other one. It growled something at its smaller brethren and ambled its way through the trees, knocking one of them over in the process. It turned its head to see more of the small two-legged creatures scurry in all directions in terror before falling on one small group nearby.

"RUN!" Moana screamed.

The next thing she knew, the world seemed to explode behind her as something big slammed into the ground. The force of it sent her flying off her feet to the ground a few metres from where she had been, banging her head a little on the dirt. When she looked up, her vision blurry, she saw the side of the huge creature filling her peripheral vision as it began to tear at the area around her tent and the rock she had been hiding behind, the screams and cries of terror filling the air. Though Moana could not see it, again thanks to her vision being a little shaky, she could only imagine what was happening now.

"Moana!"

A pair of hands grabbed her, picked her up and carried her into the forest, the branches and undergrowth quickly cutting off her vision of the enormous creatures. She looked up and saw Kapono holding her in his arms. He came to a halt after a few minutes and looked back in the direction of the village, the sounds of screams, thuds and screeches still reaching them as if they were still within the thick of it. Another roar sounded out, making him shudder.

"Kapono," Moana breathed. "Put me down, I'm alright," she said.

He obliged and set her down, holding her steady with his arm as her body tried to get over the shock. "Thank you for saving me," she told him.

He nodded as they looked back at the village. "What do we do now?" he asked her, his voice uncertain and apprehensive. No answer came. "Moana?" he asked, looking back at her, only to see she was staring ahead at the ground, quickly wiping her eyes with her hand.

"I-I don't know." She replied, her voice melancholic. "I never … expected this-"

Some nearby bushes rustled, alerting the two to it. Three figures burst out of them, all of them breathing heavily in shock at the calamity they had just witnessed and escaped. It was Tama and two of the Kaleans, a man and a woman. When they saw them, relief filled them.

"Guys!" Tama exclaimed, rushing over and embracing them individually. "I'm glad you're okay. I thought you were goners."

"No, we escaped just in time." Moana told him, looking at him and the others and then back in the direction of the village as the sounds of the attack began to lessen, meaning that the creatures had either gotten tired, or their prey was dead or scattered and they were going to be looking for them.

"What do we do now, chief?" the woman asked Moana.

She did not answer straight away. Then again, who would not? What could one answer with when asked that sort of question in the immediate aftermath of such an attack? They had all just barely escaped, and probably most of those they were with were dead or now scattered across the forests or were hiding in the village remnants. Some of them had probably even fled to the river or were heading back to the beaches.

 _Whatever way they're going, it all confirms we're scattered_ Moana told herself regretfully.

She looked up at the faces of Kapono, Tama and the two others with them, seeing the fear and uncertainty in their eyes, the possibility that they could well and truly be torn apart by morning on this island hanging over them. They were really in the thick of this place now. Only the gods could help them, or maybe they could not as she could only imagine that no such god would let a place like this exist freely.

"C'mon," she said, heaving a sigh and looking sadly in the direction of the village one more time. "We need to move before they come back."

"Where are we gonna go?" the man asked her.

She thought for a moment, and then answered. "There's big lake in the centre of this island. We can head there. Maybe there'll be a boat there for us."

"What about the other ones?" Tama asked.

"They won't be around now, and if they are we won't get far," Kapono told him, though he himself did not particularly like the idea of going into the island's interior.

Moana could see it, and quite frankly neither did she. But right now, she just wanted to keep them alive, and waiting here would most likely mean death if one of those creatures came through and found them here.

"C'mon, let's go,"

And with that, they went off further into the jungle, further into the unknown.

 **Author note: Hey fellow FF readers and writers. Be aware that as this is my own take on the Skull Island story, some of the monsters will be owned by Toho, some will be established creatures in the Kong universe, and others will be my own creations.**

 **Hope you are all doing well.**


	7. Explanation

**The morning after**

Calm. It was both funny, and also quite tentative, to feel this way after escaping with your life from a huge creature that would have ripped you limb-from-limb or swallowed you whole just hours ago. And what was more, the fact that you were on the island where more of these creatures were probably lurking around in the immense jungle was enough to put anyone on edge, possibly even to the verge of them going insane.

For Moana, it was hard to keep the latter of those two feelings under control.

As they slowly made their way across the island, having been on the move since last night, and so far covering a considerable distance, with Tama at the head, as he obviously knew the island the most out of the group, she could not help but feel as if they were being watched. As if from every angle, that hidden behind every tree or under every log or possibly even flying above them now, hiding within the clouds that lazily drifted overhead as if uncaring of the dangers of the island, was another of those creatures. It would be waiting for them to be at their most vulnerable, when their senses were drawn to something else and would momentarily lose focus on keeping an eye on their surroundings, and thus become food for another creature, just as many unfortunate had last night. One of these creatures, or something else predatory, was probably watching them last night.

Or it was possible they themselves would be the reason for their demise; when they would be so driven to worry and panic from being on the island that they would make serious mistakes, slowly become withdrawn as they tried to find a way out of this mess, no doubt coming to a point where they would willingly risk danger to themselves or others for the slim, fleeting chance that they could escape this hell.

 _That_ was something Moana feared the most. _Everyone goes crazy, they become enraged and angry, and then … ah, gods help us!_

She had to find a way for herself and the others off this island as fast as possible. And if there was anyone else out there, then they had to be saved too. Of course, there was the question of how many were still alive out there but they had not heard anyone else since the other three had joined her and Kapono. Anyone else was no probably either scattered and wandering around lost, terrified, injured … probably even d-de-dead. The people that she was with last night when the larger of the creatures literally tore then apart and swallowed them alive; the woman called Iolana who had warned her of the coldness of the water around the island; Koa; Kakali-

Upon hearing that name, a surge of anger rose within Moana as she climbed over a fallen log behind Tama, pursing her lips together tightly and clenching her fists together tightly. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself but found it hard considering how she felt about said woman right now. _That stupid bi- woman! She lied to us!_ How could she do something like this?! How could she lure Moana and more than thirty of her people, people who she was in charge of and had the responsibility to bring back to their families and friends on Kalea, to this damn hellhole _without_ telling them that it was crawling with huge monsters?! Who could do something like that? Oh, she should have never listened to her! She should have refused her asking to come here and help find her fellow tribespeople, who were all likely to have been turned into lunch considering what they all saw of the villages yesterday _and_ the monsters last night. _Send her back onto the waves and let some other idiots help her, not us!_

Though Moana was not a pugnacious or sadistic person by nature, she could not help but hope that somewhere, somehow she was hurt, pleading for help, terrified that she would be left for dead, and that something would come along and consume her as a morning snack.

"Tama, how much further is it to the lake?" Kapono, who was a few metres behind Moana, asked.

"It's quite a distance if I'm honest with you," he replied ( _Oh now you're taking a leaf from Kakalina's book!_ Moana thought to herself). He tittered a little. "Not as easy as Kalea, hey?"

 _Kalea._ Hearing her island's name brought a new wave of feeling to Moana, mostly sadness and regret. She thought back to the times when she was on the island that was her new home; the times when she and the people had toiled with sweat, tears, and occasionally blood, to make the community there into what it was now; the happiness and joy and ecstasy they all felt. She remembered the times fishing and sailing, the ceremonial dances, her parents coming to visit her and their conversations that they had not had for months, regretting that she had not listened to them about how dangerous this was for her and those going with her. All of it came back to her as if they had been awakened from the deepest recesses of her subconscious, the timing of it making them appear mocking, judging, disappointing of her and her actions.

And then there was Maui. Always, Maui was among them, whether she wanted to remember or not.

 _If only he was here. We sure could use his help right now._

Her thoughts were cut short when Tama suddenly stopped in front of her, almost running into him, and he held up a hand to signal the others to hold their position. Silence filled the air, ticking by with every second. One … two … three …

"What is it?" the Kalean man asked.

Tama shushed him harshly, something quite surprising given his more relaxed and comedic nature. He turned his head to the left, looking into the trees akin to an animal having heard the noise and sensing the possibility of a predator lurking nearby. The others followed his gaze, noticing their heart rates were starting to increase within their chests.

"Get down!" Tama whispered calmly, but urgently.

"What is it?" Moana asked.

"I don't know," he replied, looking to his right and seeing another wide fallen log on the ground a few feet away, big enough for all of them to hide behind.

They quickly leapt behind it and ducked down, keeping their eyes fixed on the trees before them. Sure enough, after a few seconds, they heard leaves rustling and saw a branch a few metres into the vegetation shake a little, then wilder as it started to move to the side as if by its own will. Tama held in his breath, as did Moana, Kapono and the other two.

A figure emerged from the bush, breathing heavily, her brown dress torn in places and covered in dirt and grass stains. It was Kakalina. She turned and called out behind her, and Kale emerged a second later, gasping for breath as this was probably the most running he had done in a while.

"Kakalina! Kale!" Tama exclaimed, jumping up and running over to her.

Their faces lit up when they saw their friend. "Tama!" Kakalina cried, rushing forward and embracing him tightly. "I was so worried about you!"

He told her the same and they released, relieved that the other had found their way safely out of the village. As Kale went over to greet the Kaleans, Kakalina explained that she and her cousin had been on the move since last night and had even hidden when a few smaller predators, which were about man height, had snake-like skin, long tails, legs that bent at the knees, lizard-like heads, sharp claws on their thin arms and toes, had rushed past them into the jungle. How they had not been caught by the 'Slashers', as they called them, they did not know, but they were probably moving in the direction of another soul from the village and, given the danger and abilities of these creatures, anyone who was unfortunate to run into them was not going to be so lucky.

"Moana!" Kale greeted happily. "I'm so glad you're okay!" A pause hung between them as Kakalina and Tama turned to look at the Kaleans, only for their expressions to change from cheerful and relieved to concern. "Right?" Kale persisted nervously.

Moana, Kapono and the two Kaleans standing before them, looking … well, to put it mildly, very annoyed.

* * *

Vines cracked and Kale yelled as he fell back against the low-hanging leaves of a tree, having been pushed. Immediately, Kakalina ran in front of him, arm outstretched with a pleading look.

"No, no, no! Please! Stop, don't! Please don't hurt him!"

Moana stopped a few feet from her, her brown eyes glaring dangerously at the woman, who lowered her arm and withdrew a little under her piercing, furious expression, furious at the fact that this woman had duped them all along.

"You've got some explaining to do!" Moana snarled, grabbing Kakalina by the arm and roughly pulling her away. "Keep an eye on Kale and Tama!" she ordered to the others.

They were only too happy to oblige and Kapono grabbed Kale and yanked him up, barking at him to sit down on the log with Tama and warning them not to move a muscle. Both men dared not to argue, hoping that Moana was not doing something horrible to Kakalina.

* * *

"Sit down!" Moana barked, pushing Kakalina onto a fallen log, having taken her about fifty feet or so from the others.

Kakalina obeyed, looking up fearfully at the young chieftain, trying not to get anymore on her bad side. Moana glared down at her, tight-lipped, fists clenched and a dangerous look that made the woman gulp. As sweet and kind as Moana was, Kakalina realised that pissing her off was a _very_ bad idea.

Moana spoke calmly, but her voice dripped with a firmness that meant she was not going to take any nonsense. "Kakalina, you're going to tell me about this island, and I want to know everything."

Kakalina swallowed. "O-or what?" she stammered nervously.

"Or we'll leave you here for those things!" Moana's voice was low, yet intimidating, her threat was there, almost incontinent.

Kakalina sighed, glancing down at the ground for a moment as if she were a sinner dipping her head in regret before their god before looking up and meeting the waiting eyes of the young chieftain. _Well?_

"This island, Moana, is nothing like has been seen before." She explained. "My people aren't even from here, we found it about two years ago, hoping to use our low wayfinding skills to leave our dead island and find another, to begin anew. And as _luck-_ " she added a sarcastic tone on this word. "-would have it, we ended up here."

"So why didn't you leave? It's not as if you were stuck here."

"Oh it wasn't that simple, Moana." Kakalina informed her bluntly, her tone becoming low. "We didn't see anything dangerous for the first few months; it was as if the island was enticing us with beauty, only to kill us all later." He paused to let those words sink in before continuing. "Now we tried to leave but some of us never returned, likely having fallen victim to some of the sea creatures that lurked in the waters around the island. We didn't know what to do, and then the land attacks started on the outer settlements. Gradually we lost more people until our leaders decided to have everyone in the two villages you've already seen, citing that there was safety in numbers. Well, _none_ of that worked because it only made us a big target for any predators."

"So you effectively screwed yourself over," Moana said and Kakalina nodded pursing her lips and pinching the top of her nose, the action a clear way of accentuating her frustration at her own people's incompetence. _How could we have just all gathered together like this? We were like a big meal, all ready and waiting for them to come and eat us!_ "So what happened next?" Moana pushed, her voice still firm.

Kakalina continued. "As you know, just before we, as in me and the others, left, we kept seeing new creatures, particularly one that appeared to have been awakened or brought to life or whatever; we don't know how. We called it Gowa, and trust me you don't want to see it because most who have are no longer alive. We also saw a large, gigantic hairy man-like beast near the mountains once or twice, but we never saw it do anything to us. It more or less kept to itself, and we just thought it was the last of its kind on the island. We named it Kong. And then, as you know, we came to see you, promising our people that we would come back and either help them, or even evacuate to another island." She concluded.

Moana just stared at her, her stern, angry expression dropping a little as she tried to process all the information she had been given. _So this island's a hellhole? Damn! I'm sure even Te Ka would have never wanted something like this for the island._ Yet, when she thought about the island and their reason for being here, she felt herself getting angrier again.

"You know, I can't believe you, Kakalina!" she said angrily. "I thought you were trustworthy, but you lied to me, my parents and my people, and you brought us all the way out here without telling us that there were monsters here that have a taste for human flesh. Well, thanks a lot! Now because of you, most of my people and some of yours are either dead, or hurt or running for their lives out there and no doubt being hunted down right now by those … those … _things_!"

Kakalina inhaled deeply, internally angry at the young chieftains words, but kept herself calm.

"Moana, let's get something straight. First: I didn't lie to you. I never mentioned anything about monsters, yes, but you never asked, so technically I'm not lying. Yeah, the logic hurts doesn't it?! Second: you _chose_ to come here, you _wanted_ to help us. In fact, to add to my first point, I told you the truth that we came here to find my people, so, again, I didn't lie to you."

Moana's mouth fell open, absolutely flabbergasted at the woman's words. Admittedly, she was right: she had chosen to come here and brought everyone with her. Even though Kakalina had really begged for her help on the premise of evacuation, she could not hide her own involvement. It was a mistake Moana hated herself for making, one she realised now, and last night after narrowly escaping being a late-night snack for one of the creatures. Still, Kakalina had no right to try and get out of this given that she had never mentioned anything about the island being a home to so many monsters.

Moana sighed, rubbing her hand across her face as if to try and rub out the frustration, and the urge to punch Kakalina right in the face.

"Look, Kakalina, the fact you never mentioned that there were monsters here, when you knew there were, clearly shows that you are just as bad as I have been in this. You knew that coming here would be dangerous, but you said nothing and made it out to be less of a threat than what was real." She paused and turned away for a moment, exhaling in anger to try and calm herself, and then rounded on the woman again. "You know you're despicable for what you've done! I made a mistake coming here, but _you-"_ she pointed an accusing finger at Kakalina. "-wanted and begged us to come here. Well, I hope you're happy because now we're stuck here! So, welcome home!"

Moana stopped, allowing herself to calm down, looking away from the woman she really despised right now. How could she do this? Dragging Moana and a good part of her village out here, and now they were all as good as dead. If not now, then very soon they would be … unless they found a way off the island, but with the boats probably having been torn to shreds by the monsters by now there was no way they could leave. Not unless they were willing to turn into swimmers for the next few weeks, or months.

"Moana," Kakalina spoke up. Her voice was soft this time, apologetic in its tone, its owner seeking forgiveness. "I'm sorry this happened to you and your people."

Moana just tutted and shook her head, sighing heavily and looking back at her. "Do the others in your group know about this?" she asked, her voice demanding.

Kakalina nodded. "Kale tried to get me to tell you what was really happening here, but I said no because I knew you and your people would leave if you found out about this island's true nature."

"Well, it's a little late for that now, isn't it?!" Moana asked angrily rhetorically. Another sigh and she looked down at the ground, placing her hands on her hips before glaring down at Kakalina once more. "So, what do we do now? Where do we go?"

"Well …" Kakalina began, trailing off for a moment as she nervously rubbed the back of her with her hand, knowing that the answer was going to piss of Moana even more. "If we can't get back to the village, the only place I can suggest is the main lake in the centre of the island. The two rivers we saw lead to them, only they cross various predator territories, and are about a day away on foot." She explained, wincing a little when Moana looked away, teeth gritted in anger. "But if there's not a boat, then …" she trailed off again, but the answer was already clear to Moana.

The young chieftain nodded slightly, weighing up their options on how to get out of this mess. And, quite frankly, all of them were dangerous. If they went back to the village, the boats might be destroyed, and there was the chance they could run into one of those things again. If they went on to the lake, they might get snatched up by the various predators along the way (she silently marvelled at the fact that they had not been chomped up by one that might have heard her yelling). And if they stayed here … well, dear readers, the outcome was the same.

 _As much as I hate to admit it, Kakalina's suggestion is the only viable option open to us at the moment_ she mentally said to herself.

"Alright," she said, her voice calmer. "We'll go to the lake. You guys will be taking us there. But if anyone else gets lost along the way, I'll be holding all three of you, and especially _you_ , personally responsible. And you better hope that there's a boat there for us to get away on."

Kakalina nodded as she stood up from the log, locking eyes with Moana to try and show her own firm side, though faltering it was.

"I promise I'll do my best, Moana." She said.

Moana snorted sarcastically as she walked past her, then stopped and looked back at her. "I think I've realised why you wear brown." She said, stopping to look back at her with an expression as if Kakalina were something, not _one,_ beneath her. "They say clothes reflect the personality of their wearers, and with you it reflects you're a piece of shit, Kakalina!"

And with that, the young chieftain walked back to the others without another word. Kakalina sighed heavily and followed moments after, knowing that this was going to be a long trek to the lake for both of them.

If only they were to get there soon.


	8. A dire situation

**Meanwhile, scattered across throughout the jungle**

Unbeknownst to Moana and her group of survivors, a large number of those from the village had managed to escape into the jungles, both in front of the beach where they had landed the previous day, and opposite said area of greenery that led further into the island, or at least this section of it. The creatures from the night before had tried to go after them, resulting in large parts of the greenery here being ripped to shreds. Some had been unlucky and were quickly snacked upon by the predators, but most had gotten lost, their sense of direction now turned upside down, sideways and any other way the human mind knew of. And them being on an island did not make them feel any better.

For those who had survived, the ordeal now consisted of two, and only two things: survive and escape. Of course, both were _much_ easier said than done. Though they were glad to have survived the night, there now lay the arduous task ahead of trying to find a way off the island and seeing if anyone else was alive. Given the roaming predators, including the possibility of those that would now be awake and hunting for anything that moved - the Kalean tribe members being nice and easy targets - such a task was not going to be easy.

And for many, it would be their last.

* * *

"Alright, we'll stop here for a moment. Catch our breaths."

With murmurs of agreement, and some mild form of relief, the four others with him, Ariki scanned the surrounding jungle, his brown eyes nervously taking in every detail in fear that something was about to leap out and grab them. Again! They had all been on the run since last night, narrowly escaping the smaller of the creatures as it had torn into their tent, ripping it to shreds with its enormous mouth and swallowing one of the other men whole and tossing another into the forest, his fate obviously being sealed then and there. He and another man called Aputi, and a woman called Hoana had carried on into the jungle, all of them shaken and barely speaking, though it was blameless considering their narrow escape. Their minds were racing, wondering if anyone else had escaped. Chief Moana? Kapono? Tama? Their fellow Kalean tribesmen and women? None of them knew but hoped and prayed to the gods that they were not the only ones left.

It was then, just as dawn had begun to break on the horizon, that they ran into someone else, another man called Ihaka and his sister, Ilihia – the two of them having emerged from under a fallen log after having hidden there to hide from the creature in case it started searching the jungle for the tiny human prey. For a brief moment, they were relieved to see that two others were alive. Maybe they would know how to get back to the village. And they might even be safer with more of them.

Then, all of a sudden, a pair of large two-legged lizard-like creatures with long tails sticking out of their bodies that, to a human's perspective, seemed to be perpetually leaning forward, sharp claws on their hands and toes, and a mouth full of bloodied, sharp teeth, had sprung from the jungle and attacked them. In the resulting chaos, one of the creatures had slashed at Ihaka, tearing a deep cut in his arm, whilst another had bitten Hoana on her back. Luckily, the greater numbers, teamwork and the use of rocks and large fallen branches and pieces of the fallen log had proved adequate enough in fending them off. Aputi, however, had decided that they needed to leave before more of them showed up and since then they had been running for their lives.

"That dressing looks bad, Ihaka," Hoana told him.

"I know, but it's not like we can use anything else." He replied.

She was right, though. One look at the bandage around his arm, having been torn from part of his sister's dress and wrapped around the wound and tied with a knot to keep it in place, was bloodied, dirty from the stains of having gone through the thick jungle brush in their haste to escape, and was starting to loosen a little. He lifted it a little and saw that some green fungus was starting to take form across part of the wound.

"Great!" he groaned irritably. "It looks like it's infected." He sighed. "And we don't know of the plants here so there's no herbal treatment."

"What about some water?" Aputi asked as he saw Ariki and Ilihia sit down on a large, knobbly fallen log nearby; the former checking the wound on the latter's back to make sure it was not the same as her brother's.

"Well, there has to be a river or something nearby," Hoana spoke up. "Maybe we could try and find one." She suggested.

Aputi shook his head. "Not if there's predators roaming around," he said apprehensively, looking up at the jungle once again, a semi-resigned expression on his face as if he knew they were eventually going to be torn apart by something once it found them, not _if._ "Let's just hope the others are still alive,"

"Do you think the Chief is?" Aputi asked, having overheard their conversation.

That question left the group speechless for a moment. They wanted to say yes but found themselves unable to do so by the simple fact of their situation. Most likely, the answer was no. Many of their fellow tribesmen had been consumed or crushed by the two giant predators last night, and probably many more had been taken by others like those they had faced not too long ago. Why would Chief Moana have survived the night? It was a morbid thought, but … it was likely to be the reality, even if she had proved herself capable of going out on her own and being able to survive against tough odds before, and even then, she had had Maui by her side.

 _If only he was here now_ Ariki mentally said to himself. _We could reall-_

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the log they were on started to move. It was only a little but enough for him and Ilihia to notice and they were quick to jump off the log and back away a few feet. The log began to shift sideways as it started to rise off the ground. They watched in amazement as a part of the log broke off and, still connected to the main part, went down to the ground. It was a leg. Another leg appeared on the other side and two more stretched out from near the front end of the log. The log then turned towards the group, who had now backed away a few metres and were huddled together. Ariki held a large rock in his hands as they stared up in fear at the creature. A tiny ball shaped head emerged from the front, a large pointed stick-like horn just above two tiny black eyes no bigger than a coconut.

"What the hell?!" Hoana breathed, grabbing a large stick from the ground.

The creature cocked its head to one side and took a few small steps forward, though its 'small' steps meant that it was almost on top of them. It made some kind of low-pitched screeching/hissing sound. As it stopped right in front of them, two long wiry antennae trailed their way out from either side of the neck and began to edge their way towards the group, feeling the air around them for something alive. The group backed away, Hoana grabbing Ariki's arm to help calm her nerves. Just the physical feel of someone close to her made her feel a little safer, not that it would probably do them much good.

The creature took another step closer and began to lean in towards them, antennae just brushing Ariki's face. It seemed to stop for a moment as if frozen in time and then moved back, feeling its way across his cheek. He cringed at the leathery, sticky feel of the creature's body part. The second antennae snaked its way onto his shoulder and then moved down towards Hoana's hand. She yelped and swung at it with her stick, knocking it away and watching as it withdrew into itself and went back into the log creature's body, disappearing behind the head.

The creature made a low groaning-like sound that steadily grew louder as it took a step back and turned its head left and right a few times as if recovering from a blow to the head. The other antennae quickly withdrew into the body.

"I think you pissed it off, Hoana," Ariki said anxiously as it looked back at them, no longer turning its head from one side to the other.

"Well I couldn't just let it feel you up, Ariki!" she vehemently replied in annoyance, only to be stopped when Aputi pointed out that it appeared to be retreating. "He's right!" Hoana exclaimed.

Indeed, he was. The creature withdrew a few more steps, another, much higher-pitched groaning noise emanating from within it as it did so. Then, with a final sound similar to what sounded like a yelp, it turned and moved away into the brush, cracking branches and scraping the barks off of trees as it disappeared into the jungle.

Ariki took a tentative step forward in the same direction the log creature went, eyes scanning the treeline nervously. He was terrified that at any moment it was going to suddenly barge out of the jungle and lunge at him and tear him to shreds. Yet, nothing. Absolutely nothing happened, and nothing came back towards him.

"I think it's gone," he announced to the others, relieved. "But we better move on."

"Good idea," Ilihia commented.

 _THWUMP!_ The ground around them shook a little. Hoana yelped in surprise and Aputi jumped towards a tree, grabbing onto a low hanging branch and barking at the others to do the same as him. _THWUMP!_ The sound came again, and the ground jolted, this time though a section of the earth was pushed up a little, throwing small piles of dirt everywhere. A third jolt moved the earth up even more, revealing it to be a kind of door, before it slammed down.

Silence. "Ariki, we need to get out of here," Hoana said.

He nodded. _I'm not gonna argue with her on that_ he mentally told himself, walking around the 'door' towards them. "C'mon, let's go." He said. "Aputi, c'mon!" he snapped at said person as he nervously glanced at the hole, not wanting to go with them, but staying here alone was not a very attractive alternative.

"Alright," he sighed as he stepped away from the tree.

And with that, the group walked away into the jungle, Aputi and Ilihia nervously glancing over their shoulders in fear that something was following them.

* * *

Run! That was all they could think of; run, run, and run more! Afu yelled at the other three following him to hurry, lest they be taken by the predators pursuing them, and had been for the last ten minutes. Lera, a middle-aged woman had been taken by them already and dragged away, her screams and cries of fear and agony filling the air. The others had wanted to go after them and get her back but more of the creatures had shown up and quickly began chasing them.

"Afu!" He looked and saw Tuala and two women emerge from the trees, all of them tired, dirty and breathing heavily, yet they held expressions of pure fright.

"What do we do?" one of the women cried. They looked back at the direction they had come from as loud screeches came from that direction and loud footfalls of several creatures steadily grew louder. "Oh no, they're coming!"

"What do we gonna do?" Tuala said, looking around worryingly, hoping for somewhere to hide.

Afu did the same, seeing many possible solutions but they would take too long and probably would not help them in the long run. Trees? Many were too tall and would take too long working together to climb. Running? They could but these creatures seemed to have infinite energy despite being a little slower than them. The cave? No, something could be in there! Maybe some wea-

 _Wait!_ "Guys, a cave! C'mon!" Afu called to them, rushing off in that direction. The others, though wary, decided not to stay behind and followed.

The cave was on the side of a small, boulder covered hill that was hidden by the brush and several trees that surrounded it, the sunlight from above barely penetrating the leaves to light up the inside. Anyone walking past it would have thought it a little scary and nerve-racking staring into the near pitch-black darkness, preferring to just leave it be and let that curious part of their brain be denied a chance for exploration for once. Right now, though, the four had no choice. It was either brave the darkness or wait outside to be killed.

They squeezed through the circular entrance and ran a few feet into the cave, hiding behind a boulder that was half-buried into the ground; thankfully, it was big enough for them all. As they looked back at the entrance, they heard the screeches and short, sharp calls of the creatures echo from outside, steadily growing closer. Then it was silent. The seconds ticked by, but they felt like minutes as the group felt their hearts pound away with adrenaline within their chests. Afu swallowed hard and one of the women next to him began to whimper a little, lowering her head and trying to stop herself from crying.

More footfalls filled the air, but, thankfully, they moved away from the cave, the barks and screeches of the creatures fading into the air.

They collapsed onto the ground in relief. They had done it! They were safe, for now at least.

"Alright," Tuala said. "We'll rest here for a few minutes, let them put some distance between us and them. Then we can make a run for it, try and get back to the shore and get off the island."

"What if the boats aren't usable anymore?" one of the women asked.

Tuala went to reply, but stopped himself, realising the flaw in his plan. Damn! She was right. Even if they got back to the village or the beach in one piece, they might not be able to get off the island. They did not know if the boats were even there as they had been running for most of the night, having just barely escaped from the larger creature as it had turned its sights on them once it had devoured a group near a large rock, it apparently being where Moana was sleeping. There was no doubt she was probably dead by now. And Kakalina?

 _If she was alive, which I doubt, then she would try and find a way off the island, maybe head towards-_

His eyes lit up. That's it! "No, we'll head to the lake nearby!" he exclaimed.

"Why?" the second woman asked as she got up and put her hand on the wall to steady herself as she lifted up her foot and began to pick out some of the stones stuck to her heel.

"We have a small fishing dock there," he explained. "You remember, the one they built about six months ago or so?" he reminded Afu, who nodded in remembering. "There might be a boat there. We can get out off the island that way."

The girls exchanged hesitant looks. Admittedly, they were pleased with the idea, the sudden positivity in the man's demeanour being a pleasant surprise considering how withdrawn and miserable he had looked all the way here, and even on Kalea. And the prospect of there being a boat available for them to escape the island and all its carnivorous inhabitants was indeed one to jump for joy at. Yet, the possible catch was that they would have to travel far to get there, and that meant they might run into more creatures along the way. They had barely gotten away last time, and Lera had not made it. Who was to say _they_ would?

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" one of them asked.

"It's either that or we stay here until something corners and gets us," Afu told them. "C'mon, it's out best chance."

The women exchanged unsure glances again, but decided to comply and went ahead. However, as they went to move, the one leaning against the wall tried to step away but her hand remained stuck there and she almost fell backwards into it. She looked and saw a thin, shiny, silvery, and sticky thread along the cave wall, reaching up to the ceiling and further into the depths of their hiding space. She raised her eyebrow in confusion. _What is this stuff?_

She tried to pull her hand off the wall but had no luck. She tried again, grabbing hold of the hand stuck to the wall with the other and yanking hard. That did not work either.

"Guys!" she called out in alarm. "I'm stuck! I can't get off the wall?"

"What?" Afu said, walking over and looking at the silvery thread, eyes following it further into the cave. "Is that…?"

"That's a web," the second Kalean woman said.

The others nodded, then they all froze and quickly looked at each other, wide-eyed.

 _If this was a web … then …_

Something big landed on the ground behind them. When they turned to look, Afu's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head with fright; Tuala immediately backed up into the wall, which unfortunately meant he himself got stuck too – a fact he quickly realised – and the two Kalean women opened their mouths in silent screams, faces contorted into looks of pure terror.

Though it was very dark and barely lit, they could see the jet-black outline of a spider, a _big_ spider. It must have been the size of a man with eight thick legs sticking out of its thorax, a huge abdomen that must have been the size of a washing bowl and eight large, black eyes staring intently at them. The mandibles clicked loudly, and saliva dripped to the ground as it eyed them hungrily, a low purr/hiss coming out from its mouth.

The four barely had enough time to scream before the creature lunged at them, and was quickly joined by two more, who emerged from the darkness and eagerly rushed into the fray to claim their part of the meal.

This was the situation of the Kaleans and the island's inhabitants. And it was only going to get worse for those who had managed to survive so far.

* * *

 **Author's note: Hey fellow FF readers and writers. Apologies for the late update, had a lot of work recently and another FF I wanted to publish. But I'm on top of it now.**

 **Hope you are all doing well.**


	9. Another wild night

**Later that day**

The day had passed in what seemed like a blur to Moana and her group as they continued to trudge on through the jungle in the direction they hoped Kakalina was leading them in: towards the large lake. Overhead the sky was filled with a fabulous display of orange, purple, gold and red as the sun began to set behind the last of the distant mountains far off to the west. As Moana glanced it at, she not only saw the day end, but felt as if the only remaining glimmer of hope they had for now was gone. Lost, the light, as if hiding from the monstrosities that lurked on the island, wanting to retain its life and not be consumed by them.

 _I don't blame it_ she thought to herself as they had walked across a bare, rocky stretch of ground in the jungle. _The gods must have created this as a hell for all who are sent here for punishment._

When she had thought about that, she turned her head to Kakalina, who had been walking a few feet to her side, nervously fiddling with her hands, head lowered and eyes pointing towards the ground. _Speaking of those for punishment._ This place was fitting for someone like Kakalina. She had lied to Moana and her people, she had brought them here and now they were all scattered across the island or were dead. And it was all _her_ fault. They were stuck in this mess because of h-

 _No!_ Moana controlled her thoughts, trying not to let them cloud the present situation. As much as Kakalina was to blame for this, Moana could not help but feel a little guilty for her part in all this. _Oh great, now I'm hating myself._ She had followed Kakalina and she had allowed herself to be lied to. _I thought I was better than this. And I thought I was doing something right._ She was now conflicting herself, one part of her insisting that she was wiser than her years, the other going against that by allowing herself to be dragged into a situation that had been shaky to begin with, and which she and her people were now reaping the consequences for. As much as she hated herself for this, she knew she bore some responsibility for all this, regardless of how much they were lied to.

 _I have to stay focused now, onwards and upwards_ she told herself afterwards. _Keep on going. I did it with the Heart, and I can do it here._

Yes, she had to stay positive. Positivity would be key in this, even if it meant she would have to go along with Kakalina, who was really their only hope of getting off the island. As much as it annoyed her, they needed her just as much as she needed them.

 _She's not going to get away with this, though_ Moana kept mentally reminding herself. _We're taking her back to Kalea, and she will stand for what she's done._

"Chief!" Kapono spoke up from the head of their group. "I think we should rest. It's getting late."

She nodded, glancing again at the sun that had now dipped behind the mountains, only the distant glow of its presence having recently been there now visible as if bidding a final farewell to the island for the night, promising it would return the next day. Moana, and she was sure that the others were doing the same, could only hope that tomorrow would return quickly. Last night had been terrifying enough for them, and she was sure tonight would be a repeat of that – unless they found somewhere to sleep safely.

"Alright," she said, glancing at their surroundings.

They were in a small clearing in the midst of the jungle, large trees towering overhead and casting eerie shadows on the ground. Moana felt a little nervous being around them, wondering if they were going to come alive all of a sudden and try and devour them and tear them apart. And if not them, then maybe something was already lurking in the trees near them, waiting to pounce.

It made her shudder just thinking about it, but there was no point carrying on until they were wiped out. What if they ran into a predator then?

Her eyes fell on a large empty log big enough for two people to stand in side-by-side. It was long, about forty feet or so, and nestled between a small clump of trees.

"There," she said, pointing over at the log. "We'll go in there for tonight."

"I don't think it'll be safe, Moana," Kale told her, and she gave him a look that immediately made him want to shrink his head into his shoulders. _Shut up or you're staying out here._ "Uh, but we can … give it a try," he replied, tittering a little and walking away quickly towards the log, trying not to make eye-contact with the other Kaleans.

They walked over there, Moana and Kapono walking inside and looking around to check in case there were any creatures living in here. Thankfully, it was empty. What was more, there were some holes dotting the sides and bottom of the log, meaning they could probably build a fire here. Moana called for the others and they, gingerly at first, entered.

"We'll settle here for tonight, get some rest." Moana told them, noting that Kakalina and Kale tried not to look at her. "Grab some firewood and we'll try and start one."

The others nodded, the other two Kaleans sitting down near Kakalina and Kale and keeping their eyes on them. Tama offered to help and joined Moana and Kapono in heading out to look for some wood in the nearby jungle. Meanwhile, outside the few remaining rays of the sun began to disappear. In the sky opposite, the darkness of the night creeped over. Another glance by Moana and Kapono made them both wonder if they would be here the next morning to see the sunrise.

 _We'll find out tonight_ they thought to themselves, though at the back of their minds they doubted they would last much longer.

* * *

 _Crack!_ The wood in the middle of the fire split in two as Tama poked it with a stick, the thin trail of smoke drifting out of a hole in the top of the log. Kapono, Kakalina and the other two Kaleans lay asleep around it, embracing the warmth brought by the fire, it being a comfort of sorts from the danger present from the outside world.

Despite this relatively relaxing setting, Tama could not bring himself to fall asleep or even chatter – a fact that had been noticed by the others as he had been noticeably quiet throughout the day, not that the Kaleans in the group had really complained. He stared nonchalantly into it, the fire, as if trying to work out something. Though he had not mentioned anything, the others could see he was worried for his brother, Koa, his face silently asking hundreds of questions. _Where was he? Was he still alive? Was he hurt? Would they see each other again?_

Those same questions hit Moana, sitting on the edge of the group and leaning back against the curved wooden wall that was their temporary refuge, head turned to look at the now dark world outside, wondering if this night was her last. Would she ever see her parents or anyone else from her village again? Would she be able to tell them that this island was cursed and damned by the gods, filled with creatures doomed to eat whatever was unfortunate enough to land here? Or was this it? Was this to be her last journey to an island, one where curiosity would have literally killed the cat?

If that was to be it, then of course she wondered how it would happen. She had survived last night, but tonight could be much different. Tonight, something might grab her and snack on her, swallow her in one gulp and that would be it. She could imagine it now: something big and frightening like those mantis-like monsters that attacked the remains of the village last night snapping her up between its jaws, throwing her into the air and then … Then she would be consumed by darkness and a hot, damp, and probably disgusting smell as she would slide down its throat before landing in its stomach. Her fate would be sealed, and she would be nothing more than part of a pile when the creature finished digesting her.

Just thinking about it made her shudder and, involuntarily, bring back memories of when she and Maui had faced Tamatoa, the gigantic crab monster in Lalotai during her journey to restore Te Fiti's heart. He had nearly swallowed her whole till Maui had intervened by grabbing his magical fish hook and, after Moana had distracted him with a barnacle by covering it in bio-luminescent algae to distract the crab – he had a profound, almost obsessive interest for anything shiny – escaped to freedom. They had been lucky that time, but then Maui had been with her, and she had had something the crab desired more than filling his belly with her body. This time though … she was without her demigod friend and at the mercy of an island that just wanted her to be something's next meal.

 _If only Maui were here_ she wished but had to remind herself he was not and she was stuck here and had to find a way off herself.

"Moana?"

As the male voice reached her ears, she sighed in a disapproving manner and looked behind her to see Kale standing nearby, sheepishly looking at her with a small smile to try and build some kind of friendly bridge. She did not return the smile or even any trace of happiness; she just looked at him the same way someone would look at an insect or animal that was disturbing them.

"Yes, Kale?" she asked, not hiding the annoyance.

"Uh, hey, Moana," he greeted in a friendly tone. "I-uh … just wanted to sit and … talk with you. Y'know, keep you company," he told her, quickly adding the last part of the sentence.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, making her annoyance clear to him. Why was he doing this? What, was he going to try and fill her with more crap about how all of this was not their fault and that she should feel good they were alive? Bah! _Just trying to shift the negativity from himself or make me forget it entirely!_ Well, Moana was not going to forget it any time soon. And Kale was going to have to accept it; he was not getting off that easy when they left here.

If _we get off this island_ she reminded herself.

Still, she felt as if she had to at least give him a chance, however pointless it was. "Fine," she replied laconically in a fed-up tone, moving her head back to its original position looking out the end of their shelter.

"Oh, great!" he lightly exclaimed with some enthusiasm, but it quickly melted away when he saw it was not going to have much of an effect on her.

He sat down on the ground next to her and hoped to speak to her straight away, but she did not even turn her head to face him – a clear sign of her feelings towards him and his group at the moment. He felt his courage falter a little, realising that she was probably going to ignore him no matter what he said, but he had to press on. Moana still pressed on even when faced with such difficulty, so why not him?

"Moana, I know that we've had some problems and haven't been honest with you," he said. "But we're not bad people. And Kakalina didn't want any of this to happen."

Moana snorted, still keeping her back to him. "Whether she did or not, the fact is that it did, Kale!" she replied. "We're stuck in a log miles inland, and most of us are dead and we're just placing our hopes on something that might not even be where we're going."

"Moana, Kakalina didn't want this to happen, and neither did I or anyone else in our group."

"I believe you, Kale. But that still doesn't change the fact that Kakalina lied to me and now we're in this mess. And don't try and hit me with some guilt that I let myself be fooled by her. She knows what she's done."

Kale did not reply but instead heaved a heavy sigh, knowing it was going to be hard to try and get Moana to see, from his perspective at least, some sense. They did not mean for this to happen. But he felt a pang of guilt surge through him, knowing that his tribe knew the dangers of this island more than anyone else did so they _should_ have warned them. Even though he did not want to fully admit it himself, he knew they had been leading Moana's group into danger. He had even warned Kakalina about earlier yesterday, so … maybe …

"Look, how much longer until we reach the lake?" Moana asked, finally looking over her shoulder at him. "Another day or so?"

He nodded lightly, eyes looking down at the wooden, mossy floor. "Roughly. If we leave early tomorrow morning, then we should reach there by maybe the afternoon or evening tomorrow." He explained. "Though, provided _nothing_ happens to us."

Moana gave a light nod. "Right. And is there anything else I should know?" She pressured him bluntly.

"Well there's a few geysers in a large part of a rocky expanse near the lake which we need to be careful of because it can be a bit temperamental. And then there's the smaller lakes that lead into the bigger one; they're around the ridge areas just before the wastelands at the foot of the foot of the first mountains." He paused and considered for a moment. "That should be about it."

"Alright," Moana replied. "Go and get some sleep, Kale. I'll keep watch." She turned her back to him.

"But, Moana, shouldn't you get some rest?"

"No, I need to make sure nothing else happens. Go to sleep, Kale." She told him.

He sighed again and walked away, though just before the fire, he stopped and turned to look back at her.

"I get the feeling you would have done the same thing as us if our positions were swapped, Moana," he told her.

She rolled her eyes. _Of course, the usual: '_ We're not so different' _and_ ' _You would have done the same!' What bad fruit did he eat yesterday?_ She did not even turn back to look at him; instead she just carried on looking ahead at the hole, wondering once again if they would ever escape this island. Would she ever see her family again?

 _Whatever the outcome is, I have to stay strong for the others._ She looked back at them, silently pleased that they were all sound asleep and resting around the fire. _Right now, they need me to be calm._

She turned her head back to look at the entrance to the log and rest her head against the wall. _Just hope tonight is quiet._

* * *

On and on he trudged, searching the forests. He was sure that this was the right area of the island. At least, he hoped it was. The village here had been torn apart – well, more than it had been before. Last time it had been something he was unable to prevent because of … _her._ And maybe this was her doing too; the new arrivals having been pulverised and driven into the jungles.

Either her or one of the many other types of creatures that lurked around the island.

As he moved on, his large feet squashing some of the smaller trees and undergrowth that barely went past his knees, he glanced down at a large scar on his arm, a result of when she had attacked him. The other two he had been with had not been so lucky and he had barely escaped with his life.

 _This island is cruel. Any humans here would not last very long._

He was determined not to let the same mistake happen again. He moved on, having passed the geysers earlier. He had yet to find any of the humans. A part of him felt he was too late but he soldiered on.

 _If there are any left, then I have to get to them before any of the creatures – more specifically her – do._

* * *

"Moana!"

She stirred and rubbed her eyes and, looking up, saw the Kalean man crouched down next to her, hand on her shoulder and shaking her awake. He held a panicked expression as he glanced up at the hole at the end of the log and then back at her, his eyes pleading with her to get up.

"Tihoti?" she mumbled sleepily as she sat up. "Sorry, I must've doz-"

He shushed her urgently and told her to listen. "Why?" she asked him, now fully awake, concern growing within her. "Is something coming?!" her voice was a mixture of demand and fear as she glanced at the end of the log, seeing nothing but the darkness outside.

Then she heard it. Somewhere outside, she heard the thuds of feet. And not one pair of feet, but several, and they seemed to be on the outside of the log. Moana shot up from the ground, her breath caught in her throat as she tried to control it. She looked over her shoulder to see the others either standing or sitting up, all of them alert, eyes fixated on the ceiling of the log as if something were going to suddenly crash through at any moment. Behind them, the fire had now gone down but was still burning to a degree that it provided some source of light.

"Put it out!" Moana hissed at them. "Quick!"

"SShhh! Chief!" Kapono whispered loudly.

The sound of feet moving outside came to a halt. Silence. Moana swallowed hard and, grabbing hold of Tihoti's arm, began to pull him back with her towards the others. Behind her, Kakalina slowly stood up and, grabbing a piece of wood that had been partially burned by the fire, held it by her side, the other end glowing a coal red in the darkness. Even though she mentally doubted that it would be of much good against something here if whatever was outside decided to come crawling into their shelter.

Silence. That was all that surrounded the group. Had the creatures or whatever was outside left? Moana thought to herself that if they had, then they were going to have to make a run for it as quickly as they could. But a voice at the back of her head stopped her. _What if they're waiting for us? Oh no! if that's the case, then we're trapped!_

Something dropped down into the entrance of the log, though its silhouette was barely visible in the faint glow provided by the fire. _How fitting!_ It resembled their hopes of getting out of this situation very accurately, and when it went out then they were likely going to follow the same way very quickly. The thing turned slowly and, though dim the light was, a pair of glowing, golden eyes stared back at the ground, hovering about three feet off the ground. For a moment, they hovered at the entrance, observing the group like a person curiously observing an animal.

Then, it began to crawl forward into the log, its small form ambling its way towards them. At this, Moana made a sharp intake of breath and stepped back two paces, almost going into the fire had Kakalina not stopped her with her hand. Kapono grabbed a rock he had held onto from their journey, ready to throw it at the creature. As it approached, the group realised that it was barely making any noise. What was more, them standing in front of the fire was preventing a lot of the light from reaching the creature. It was terrifying whenever the creature blinked as the eyes would appear to be far away when they went out but would then reappear closer than before.

"Guys, we need to run!" Kale whispered.

As much as she hated to admit it, Moana knew Kale was right. Slowly, they backed away around the fire. The creature came closer, the light reaching out and starting to illuminate its form gradually more. Kakalina and Kapono held their 'weapons' at the ready in case it decided to charge them. Closer and closer it came until it was only about fifteen feet away.

It emerged from the darkness and stopped just in front of the fire, and it was a creature that managed to be peculiar, terrifying and amazing all the same time.

The thing was partially like a normal human: a torso, two legs and two 'arms', though they were used as legs to hold the front of the creature up. Its head was roughly similar to that of a human's too, but everything else was just alien to them. The body was a pale brown colour, almost like that of the timber of a tree and seemed to be stretched over the already thin frame of the creature. Moana could see its ribs and hip bones (at least that was what she thought they were). She even thought she saw the outline of its heart move under the skin as if it were about to burst out of its chest. The back legs were thin and bent backwards at an odd angle from the knee before going directly straight to the floor where they connected to what looked like the foot of a human – only with four toes rather than five, and each of them were clawed. The front 'legs' were very similar but were dead straight as if they had no elbows and ended to what resembled a human hand that looked bony as if the creature had been going through an advanced stage of malnutrition. The shoulders jutted out sharply and the top of the bony form of the spine was visible in the fading glow of the fire.

The head of the creature was something else entirely. Even though, as I mentioned, it was shaped like that of a human, it held none of the facial features one would deem recognizable on a regular person. No nose, ears, eyebrows, not even a mouth. Only the gold eyes seemed to bear any kind of similarity to a regular face, and they were haunting in their stare at the group. The lack of features and the sheer oddness of the creature were completely unfamiliar with them. They had no idea what it was thinking. Was it going to lunge at them and attack? Or was it just curious? An animal that happened to be wandering, possibly with more of its kind, and it heard them in the log and came to investigate? Maybe, but it just sitting there made them feel even more terrified.

Moana turned her head slightly to look at Kakalina, not daring to fully look away from the creature in case it _did_ attack.

"What is this thing?" she asked her anxiously.

"A howler," Kakalina replied, not looking away from it. "And we need to go now." She added hurriedly, fearfully.

Moana went to reply but the creature moving made her look back fully – and almost gasp out loud.

The thing had risen onto its back legs and was now towering over them, bending the upper part of body so its head did not brush the ceiling. Even though Kapono was the tallest of the group, he only just came up the creature's 'chin', and he withdrew a little more as it moved its head closer to them, a soft purr emanating from within its featureless form. Moana's eyes widened as she watched it step closer to them until it was standing directly over the fire, its front 'legs'/arms hanging by its side and reaching down to where its knees should have been. The eyes were piercing, seeing right through her. Slowly, it cocked its head to one side and then back to normal.

"What's it doing?" Tihoti whispered.

"Nothing good. We need to run!" Tama urgently hissed.

A low growling began to sound from the creature's neck, no doubt that being the throat – at least _that_ part was the same as a human's. Another step forward and the group retreated once more, taking note that the bony legs were not at all hindered by the glow of the fire now at its feet. Moana looked back up and, as their eyes met, she could see that its gaze was no longer curious. The head dipped ever so slightly, and another growl sounded out from it.

It looked predatory. The look of a carnivore ready to lunge and rip its prey limb-from-limb.

"Go!" she warned. "Run!"

The creature's head rose so that its face was pointing towards the ceiling.

"Run! Run!"

They turned and fled. Almost immediately, the most spine chilling sound echoed out from behind them. Moana and Kakalina dared to look back and saw it standing, arms spread, eyes slightly closed and what could only be described as a howl erupting from within its thin, hallowed frame despite there being no clear mouth for it to come out from. Wow! For a thin creature, it sure did have powerful lungs!

They emerged from the log and fled into the darkness, pushing trees and bushes out of their way. _Thud! Thud! Thud!_

"Oh, Te Fiti help us! There's more!" The Kalean woman exclaimed.

She was right. One glance over her shoulder told Moana that three more of the creatures had appeared, probably having been waiting on the top of the log for them to run out. Further behind the one that had entered the log came bursting out and quickly gave chase as well, determined to catch up to its brethren.

"Split up!" Moana cried out to the others. "Break into groups! Try and lose them!"

The others protested but the quickening pace of the creatures and their closing proximity quickly silenced them, albeit reluctantly. Kale and Tihoti split off and ran to the left, drawing away one of the creatures. Tama, Kapono and the Kalean woman fled to the right. Two of the creatures, one of them being the one that had come to them in the log, pursued them. That left one.

"Keep running!" Moana called to Kakalina, catching her when she nearly stumbled at one point.

They ran and ran, the creature not far behind. It pushed aside brush and leaves, keeping its golden eyes locked onto them, determined to catch its prey. Moana and Kakalina ran on, jumping over a small stream onto a small rise on the other side. Moana looked back when she reached the other side in the hopes that the creature would not be able to jump over it. Kakalina, however, quickly warned her that it would not work, and just as she finished speaking, the creature burst from the undergrowth and leapt into the air. Moana yelped and, grabbing a fallen branch, swung it at the creature in a fashion reminiscent of the time she had fought the Kakamora pirates when restoring the heart.

 _WHAM!_ The creature fell to the ground, landing on its side. Moana smiled at herself. Yes! She had done it! She had taken one down. _Maybe these things aren't as strong as they thought._

Those feelings were short-lived, however, when the creature began to rise to its feet, shaking its head to regain its composure.

"Moana!" Kakalina grabbed her and pulled her into the jungle as fast as they could go. Not a second too soon as the creature gave chase, growling to itself, raring to get at the two. "We need to find somewhere to hide!" Kakalina told the Kalean chief as they ran through the bushes.

"Like where?" Moana asked.

Kakalina did a quick scan of their surroundings, hoping that the faint moonlight coming in through the trees above would be enough, and found somewhere in the deep blackness. "Here!" she grabbed her and pulled her into a large hole under a tree and partially covered by some leaves. There the two lay and waited with baited breath.

Footsteps fast approaching filled the air, then something rushed into the space just in front of the tree. They heard the creature breathing heavily, then saw a pair of gold eyes go back and forth as it searched the jungle. In their hiding spot, Moana and Kakalina quietened their breaths, terrified that if they so much as breathed too loudly a little it would lock onto them and attack.

 _Please go away! Please!_ Moana mentally begged, shutting her eyes tight and, inadvertently, grabbing onto Kakalina's arm, though the woman was too scared to even look down.

 _Boom. Boom. Boom._ The ground shook a little, then more. Moana opened her eyes and exchanged a shocked look with Kakalina. Outside, the creature let out a growl of alarm and then retreated back into the jungle as fast as it would go. The ground shook more and more, followed simultaneously by the sound of trees snapping nearby. It sounded like something big was crashing through the jungle. _Boom! Boom!_ They were getting closer. _It_ was getting closer. The ground shook more. It was almost right on top of them. _Boom! Boom! BOOM!_

Silence. The two women exchanged nervous glances, mentally asking each other: _Should we make a run for it?_

 _ **RRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!**_

The roar was unlike anything they had ever heard before. It seemed to force its way right through them. Their insides rattled, their spines tingled, their hearts seemed to stop mid-beat and they froze like statues. Moana struggled to breathe and Kakalina closed her eyes, muttering a silent prayer to the gods in the hopes they would be spared.

The roar ended. Another moment of silence.

Footsteps and trees snapping echoed out again, this time moving away from their hiding spot. Within a few minutes, they were gone, save for the occasional rumble that could be faintly felt across the ground. Gingerly, the two emerged from their hiding spot, though stayed close in case they had to dart back inside at a moment's notice.

" _What_ was that?!" Moana asked Kakalina.

She shook her head. "I don't have a clue," she replied. "But obviously it was something big." A pause hung between them as they scanned their surroundings. Nothing in their immediate vicinity was trampled or crushed but it had to be close for the creature's roar to be that loud. "Should we stay here?" she asked Moana.

The chief shook her head. "No. We need to look for the others, if they're still alive that is. I know it isn't the best idea but …"

She trailed off, hating herself for even wanting to do something like this. Going out into the jungle when there were creatures running around? Especially ones that had chased them and then another that must have been the size of a mountain? It was a bad idea, but Moana did not want to stay here and sleep with the thought that something was happening to the others lost out there in the jungle.

"C'mon!" she said, rushing back into the forest; Kakalina reluctantly following her.


	10. Two more down

**Hey fellow FF readers and writers. I apologise for the long absence between updates. I had a lot to deal with family, changing of work and writers block and laziness. Updates will continue from this weekend onwards as I have more free time now. Apologies again.**

 **The next morning**  
 **Somewhere deep in the jungle**

His scream echoed throughout the jungle, one of intense pain as well as fear. Anything within a few hundred feet or so that had heard the sound would either turn towards it and then rush off, knowing that it was the cry of some creature that would be their next meal. Others would simply continue with their daily natural habits, oblivious to the creature's cries, its want to live another day. As said before, it was simply the way life on the island worked, not because of a selfish desire to save their own skin.

On the ground, Aputi pulled himself forward, a small but deep wound visible on his back. Two more deep slashes ran down the back of his legs. His face was contorted into a look of pain and he gritted his teeth as hard as possible to try and stem the flow of pain from the area. Weakly, he called out to the others and loosely grabbed at the leafy and grass covered ground in the vain attempt to pull himself to some apparent place of safety. Blood ran down his back and the moment he moved even a little he cried out. The sensation felt like someone was pouring red hot water all over him.

A hiss/growling noise made him stop dead. That sound! He knew what was making it, and what it meant.

He quickened his crawling pace in an effort to get away, grasping at anything and everything to pull himself forward. It was not fast enough as something scaly and hard slammed onto his back, pushing him into the ground, the low but seemingly perpetual hiss/growl emanating through the air. He tried to move but the creature's foot seemed to neutralise his body's ability to move, save for an attempt at trying to force it off (not that it would do much good). He cried out in pain as something sharp cut into his back. A hand with sharp claws and four fingers quickly followed by grabbing the back of his neck. Blood flowed as the tips of the appendages cut into the skin and making Aputi issue another, weaker cry of pain.

Watching from a fallen log between some trees was Hoana. She wanted to rush out there to help him, she wanted to save him; then they could continue on and try and make it to the centre of the island or back towards the beach. But she knew how pointless and dangerous it would be – death would be a complete certainty. All she could do was watch as the creature that had Aputi lifted his head towards its mouth, bite down on his ear and cheek and …

She looked away ducked down behind it, hand placed over her mouth, trying not to sob lest she draw the creature's attention. That was another one gone. The others had all been killed by these creatures, the so-called Slashers. They had been moving through the jungle for most of yesterday and found a cave to rest in for the night – thankfully, nothing had been in there waiting for them. This morning, however, shortly after leaving the cave, they had run into a group of these creatures that were quick to attack them, and, like a co-ordinated attack by a group of intelligent predators, were quickly surrounded and mostly cut down. Hoana and Apuli had been lucky enough to escape the initial attack but had been pursued by several of the creatures through the jungle shortly after. And well the result is before you, dear readers.

Oh, this was so horrible! All of those she had been with were dead or injured, though it was unlikely given the predatory nature of these creatures. And now she was out here alone and with those things not too far away feasting on her friend. If by some miracle she escaped, what could she do? Going out alone was near suicide but staying here with these creatures was just as bad. Plus, they had lost their way since fleeing from the main village and could be anywhere in the jungle far from the shore.

 _I have to do something!_ Her mind raced, perspiration running down her forehead, eyes glancing nervously in the direction of the creatures nearby. _Just move back quietly and slowly._

One step. _Okay._ Second. _Good. Keep low and stick to the trees._ Third step. Her foot touched a twig, but she quickly moved it off and stepped back again, taking shallow breaths as she moved away as quietly as she could. _Nice dodge._ Fourth step. _Yes._ Five. Six. Seven. Ei-

A growl directly behind her sent shivers down her spine, her body becoming rigid as if frozen in time. Slowly, nervously, she looked over her shoulder to meet the face of one of them.

Less than six feet away, holding her under its predatory gaze, was a creature that looked like a mix between a bird and some time of dragon/lizard like thing. It stood on two thick legs that bent sharply at the knees and led down to a pair of feet with three sharp claws on each one. A long tail came out of the rear of what was its torso. The other end of this body part led up to a thin neck that held up a lizard-like head with two black eyes, a snout with a large mouth that hissed menacingly, baring razor-sharp teeth that glowed in the faint sunlight able to break through the canopy above, and was covered with feathers along the neck and back of the head similar to those the Hoana would see being worn as decorations on her home island of Kalea and on her people's mother island of Montunui. A pair of thin, bony arms similar to those of a human, though both ended in four clawed hands rather than anything an actual hand, protruded from the front of the main body part of the creature. To her, this was something known only as a kind of slashing creature – no doubt it being one of the 'Slashers' that the inhabitants of the island had told her about. To people who would come millennia later, it would be known as a _Velociraptor._

She backed away quickly, eyes wide – fear clouding her vision. It hissed and advanced slowly, almost as if it were trying to sneak up on her from behind, but Hoana knew what it was doing. It could lunge at her right now if it wanted, but instead it was taking it's time. It was playing with her – waiting until it _wanted_ to strike. She was not going anywhere because there was no chance she could outrun it. And soon she would be joining the others of her group.

Another bark from behind made her look over her shoulder to see another pair of the creatures jump onto a fallen log about twenty feet behind her. They barked and growled in her direction, as if beckoning their mate to attack, or cheering him on in his taunting of this new form of prey before them. Hoana panicked. She was trapped! Running would be pointless because they would catch up to her and rip her to shreds. _Oh God, what do I do?!_

The Slasher before her advanced more quickly now, snapping at her. She yelped and fell on her back, desperately pushing herself away towards the clearing as it loomed over her, its black eyes glaring down at her hungrily. _Food_. That was all she was. Just another meal for it and its two friends – they had moved along her right, keeping their gazes fixed on her, barking and yipping loudly as if ordering their friend not to let her run away. They were trapping her, cutting off any route of escape and she knew it. She really was a goner.

 _ **CRUNCH!**_ The Slashers darted their heads in the direction of the noise that came from the other side of the small clearing, probably no more than a few tens of metres away. _**CRUNCH!**_ There is came again, though this time it was louder. _**CRUNCH! CRUNCH!**_

Panicked barks and yips sounded out from the creatures – the one standing over Hoana looking nervously in the direction of the incoming sounds. Something was coming. Something big. Hoana even looked over her shoulder in the same direction, momentarily ignoring the predators as they all stared in fear at what was coming.

A loud screech sounded out from her right. One of the creatures, it was. It yelped again, urgent, frightened. Then scurried off, its partner in tow. The third creature that had been standing over Hoana glanced down at her, meeting the woman's gaze with its own, then up in the direction of the sounds once more, and then turned and ran off after its brethren, fading away into the undergrowth.

 _What in Te Ka's name was that?!_ Was all Hoana could think to herself.

She picked herself up, looking behind her at the trees where she could see … nothing. Well, nothing out of the ordinary. All the trees and leaves and other jungle undergrowth was as still as a statue – nothing at all moved. There was not even a breeze. _Weird._ What had been approaching that had scared off the Slashers? It was obviously something big for it to make that much noise, but _where_ was it? Had it walked away? Or had it been simply just moving past and that had been enough to scare the Slashers into fleeing?

A slight moan from nearby snapped Hoana out of her stupor. Aputi! She crawled over to him quickly, turning him over to see his eyes flicker as consciousness slowly returned to his body. He looked up at Hoana and gave a slight laugh.

"Always a woman to appear over a man," he commented as he tried to sit up, but stopped as pain flared up his back.

"Aputi, take it easy," she instructed him. "Don't put too much strain on yourself." She surveyed their surroundings, trying to ascertain the location of the noise, and also ensure that nothing was trying to sneak up on them. Nothing was there. "We need to move – carefully that is. Can you walk?" she asked him.

He nodded and, groaning in pain, pushed himself up with Hoana helping him up, putting one of his arms around her. He was heavier than her light build, but thankfully he was not injured enough to be unable to walk himself. Determination? Or lack of pain? Either was possible, but both wanted to get to the lake in the centre of the island. Their minds momentarily thought of the questions: _Was everyone else still alive? The chief? Would they find anything there in order to leave this place?_

 _Maybe_ Hoana thought to herself. _But sitting here won't get us off the island._

 _ **CRUNCH!**_ The two's eyes darted over to their left. A large branch had fallen to the ground from one of the tall trees. Silence.

Hoana spoke: "What wa-"

But did not finish.

A growl made them look up at the tree top, only to be greeted by a face as red as blood, a pair of golden eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

The two screamed and it lunged, silencing them forever and spraying their sanguinary insides across the ground.


	11. Kong vs Godzillasaurus

**Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island  
**

"Kakalina, how much further?" Moana asked irritably as they walked on through the brush, glancing at her surroundings every so often to ensure that they were not being followed – and to also keep an eye on said person with her.

"We should be near one of the smaller lakes that feeds into the larger one near the centre of the island." Kakalina informed her. "But we should be careful because some creatures live in or around it, and then there's some dangerous plants too." She added anxiously.

 _Then we have to make sure we don't end up as a snack for something_ the young chieftain thought to herself, wondering again if they were going to end up in one piece by the end of the day.

Silence fell between them again, broken only by the usual, monotonous sounds of their feet hitting the ground, and the occasional call of a distant creature, its voice, despite the distance from the two, making them feel as if it would suddenly burst out of the trees at any moment and rip them apart. They had been on the move since early that morning, having managed to survive by hiding between the roots of a large tree further into the jungle. The howlers had not come after them again, but they had also not run into the others, meaning that they were either still alive and, hopefully, heading in the same direction as they were. When questioned again over what had driven the howler, Kakalina had said that she had no idea, but could speculate that it may have been Kong, the large ape creature she had mentioned previously, but it was just as much of a guess as anyone else would make given the circumstances. Not exactly knowing made them only more apprehensive as to what could other creatures, unknown even to Kakalina, could be lurking here.

Moana tried to keep her head on getting to the lake, but the possibility of something charging out and attacking them – or worse, _stalking_ them – was terrifying and she could not help but perpetually glance at her surroundings. Though a part of her wondered if even that would be helpful, considering that they were on an island where the animals were completely different to the usual lizards, birds, fish etc. of her home islands. Something predatory or herbivore in nature could be watching them right now, and they might not even know about it.

Such things made her think of a horrible possibility that had been absent from her mind until then. What if her someone else came looking for them? More specifically, her parents? Depending on how long they would stay away from Kalea and Montunui, would they decide after some time to send out search parties and come looking for their daughter and the party? If so, there was a chance they could end up here on this island, and if that happened well … the events of the last two days would be an obvious sign to anyone unfamiliar with this place.

 _Would my parents find me? Or would I just be a pile of bones for them, or anyone else that happened across this island?_

All of them were horrific scenarios; morbid, yet at least realistically possible.

"Moana?"

Kakalina's voice snapped the young chieftain out of her trance and turned her pondering/anxious gaze to meet her companion's one of hesitancy, fearful over trying to initiate a conversation with someone who clearly despised her right now.

"Moana, I …" she spoke but trailed off, glancing ahead quickly to ensure that they were not wandering off in another direction and that there was nothing up ahead they might run into. For now, they were okay. "Moana … I'm …" she paused and sighed heavily, regretfully. "I know it's late and pointless to say this, but-"

"Kakalina, there's no point!" Moana interrupted her gruffly, giving her an annoyed look. "It doesn't matter what your intentions were, what you did was wrong?!"

"I know that, and that's why I want to apologise!" Kakalina replied, voice firm but desperate. "Like I said, I didn't mean for this to happen!"

Moana stopped and rounded on her, angrily staring at her face. "Well, guess what? It did, Kakalina!" she snapped vehemently at her. "Because you failed to mention that this island of yours was full of these … these _things!_ You didn't say anything!" Moana's voice had risen considerably now and Kakalina flinched a little. "And because you didn't say _anything,_ everyone else is probably dead and we're stuck here wondering how long we've got left until something tries to eat us!"

She paused for a moment to let her words sink in, and for Kakalina they were a painful reminder of what she had done. A part of her tried to deny this was her fault entirely. _Moana had chosen to come here with me! She's just as much to blame as I am. She could have said no!_ But it was pointless to think such thoughts. She knew the cause for all this, and it all rested squarely upon her shoulders.

"Kakalina, what you have done is despicable! And if we get back to Kalea, you _will_ pay for you've done!"

Kakalina reflected on the single word; _if. She knows how dangerous it is for us._ "W-what do you mean by paying for it?"

"I don't know," was the blunt answer. "But you better hope that we both make it back, or there'll be nothing stopping you from being fed to whatever's in the ocean."

At that, Kakalina audibly gulped, plainly perturbed by the young chieftain's possible prediction for what could happen to her. She could only imagine what might happen to her if such a scenario were to occur; her being left adrift in the sea to starve or dehydrate to death. Maybe they would just send her away on a boat with nothing and let the gods deal with her as punishment. The sheer ludicrous nature of it did not bear thinking about, but then neither did this island when they fled their last home before coming here – and look where they were now.

"C'mon!" Moana said firmly, grabbing her arm and pulling her along behind her. "We need to get going! Are we still going the right way?"

It took a few seconds for Kakalina to reply; she still lingered on that possibility of what could be in store for her should she survive – the key word being _should._ _Either way, I'm dead._

"Um – y-yeah! We just keep going." She replied, her tone noticeably low, but Moana could care less right now. The young chieftain had to admit she was surprised at her own fierce and assertive demeanour right now but given what had happened who _wouldn't_ feel this way?

They walked on for a few more minutes, the undergrowth gradually becoming more open and spacious with an open area gradually becoming more visible ahead of them. Finally, they emerged from the brush back into the open wilderness of the island.

Before them, about a hundred feet or so, was a large lake about four hundred or so feet across with a large river at the opposite end snaking out towards the row of huge mountains that, though still a considerable distance away, loomed over them, the tip of each one pointing up into the clear blue sky over the island. More forest surrounded most of the sides of the small lake with a tiny row of rocky, green covered hills taking up the rest of the space, a large gap between two sections of them to allow the river to lead on towards what was, presumably, the main lake they had been going towards. Several boulders lined the sides of the lake as if they were ornaments. Though the scene was beautiful to the two women, what really attracted their attention was the wildlife.

"Are we the only things here?" Moana asked Kakalina, who took a quick gaze of her surroundings to see if something was alive.

"No, look!" she answered, pointing over to one of the boulders on the right side of the lake.

Moana looked and saw, to her amazement, a creature that looked like the trunk of a tree but with four thick legs and what looked like a rounded head sticking out of one end that was slightly raised into the air. It bent its legs and lowered its head to the water, holding it there for a few seconds before returning to its original position and then started pounding the ground with one of its legs as it were digging for something.

"What is that?" Moana asked.

"We call those kinds of creatures a logger," Kakalina explained. "I know it isn't very original, but what else can you call them when you see something like that?" she added when Moana gave her a look that said: _"Why would you call them that?"_ "But don't worry, they're not meat eaters. At least, not that I know of."

 _Well that's reassuring!_ Moana mentally told herself. "What's it doing?"

"I think its getting rid of the madness plants that grow along the side of some of the lakes. They're quite dangerous so stay clear of them."

They watched the creature as it continued to pound the ground for a few more moments. Then it stopped and raised itself up a little more and going still like a statue. The women exchanged worried looks. Had it seen them, or maybe smelt them or something? If it knew that they were there, what was it going to do?

A loud screech erupted from the logger's direction as it quickly scurried off into the woods behind it as fast as its legs would carry its huge bulk. Now that was strange, and worrying. _Did it know something was coming?_ Moana scanned the surrounding trees, as did Kakalina beside her. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; there was no loud crushing of trees or growling or anything else that hinted something was approaching. At least, not what they could see or hear or smell.

 _ **SPLASH!**_ The two's eyes darted back to the lake, specifically over to the other side. What they saw made them feel amazed, shocked and terrified.

There, some way into the water from the start of the river, was a large creature. Scratch that, it was huge. It stood about sixty to seventy feet tall on two thick, muscular legs that were buried about knee deep in water. The torso was big and bulky with defined muscles at the top and around the area where the abs of a human would be. Two powerful arms hung down by the creature's side. What really stood out about it was the head. It was animal looking, yet had some kind of human resemblance to it in how it was structured, how it looked to be a mix between two things. A pair of eyes with a dazzling and surprisingly beautiful orange colour scanned the surroundings, them being placed above a nose that looked like it had been partially stretched across the face, and below a pair of defined ridges where the eyebrows would normally be located. The mouth had a kind of spherical shape to it as if a ball were attached to the bottom of the face, yet the lips were thin, almost blending into the rest of the body part. The entire creature was covered in a layer of brownish/black hair, though it did little to hide the defined muscular look of the creature's arms, torso, legs and shoulders (and quite possibly the back too). Only the face, hands and top and centre of the torso were largely free of the hair, which revealed to Moana and Kakalina several large scars that ran down the creature's front and also seemed to trail over its right shoulder, evidence it had seen a battle recently.

Given the numerous carnivorous animals they had encountered on the island, Moana was hardly surprised. Yet, actually seeing it close did remind her of the many strange things this island, and possibly the world had to offer – or hide.

To the two women, the name for a creature as this was yet unfounded. In the distant future, generations would call them apes or gorillas, giving similar names to other similar types of beings. Now, however, only one name could be used for it.

"Kong," Kakalina breathed, motioning for Moana to get down so they would not be spotted; the young chieftain obliging.

Even though she had seen this creature a few times, it had always been from a far distance, never this close. It was funny how distance made things appear small, even minuscule, be that theoretically or literally based on distance. Now, being so close to such a creature was truly daunting, intimidating even. Next to her, Moana could not take her eyes off it. This was the first time she had seen such a creature; not even when she was with Maui. This was so new to her.

 _But also frightening_ she mentally told herself. _What if this one is looking for a quick meal too?_

The creature let out a low grunt and squatted down until its bottom was just about to touch the lake's surface, dunked its hand into the water and lifted it up to its mouth and began to take huge gulps of water. When its hand was empty, it repeated the process, this time slurping it and spilling some of it across its chin and bent legs. A third handful, it splashed over the face and rubbed it across it as an ordinary person would when cleaning themselves. Though it was lake water, to the creature this was a refreshing as having a bath.

The two women watched from their position on the ground, not daring to move in fear that they would attract its attention, though a part of them wondered if anything would actually happen given the tired expression the creature held. Moana did slowly half-turn her head to see how far they were from the forest. It was only a couple of tens of feet, but this creature might see them and pounce before they would have a chance to lose themselves in its green depths. She looked at Kakalina, the woman's eyes meeting her own and showing how fearful she was.

 _What do we do?_ Moana's expression pressed.

Kakalina just shook her head a little and gestured with her hand, palm facing the ground, looking back at the creature as it splashed a handful of water over its arm, the gesture clearly saying _Just don't move anywhere._ Moana wanted to contradict but decided against it. Right now, it was not the perfect time to test this 'Kong's' patience or sight.

After a few minutes of washing, Kong stood up, towering over the surrounding forests, wiping his arms clean of water and observed the scenery of the surrounding wilderness, rubbing his eyes to try and keep them awake. He had been on the move most of the night and today, trying to find them. So far, it had been unlucky – the many various predators on the island had seen to that, but he could not give up. If there any left, then he wanted to get to them before the island's creatures did.

The large ape half-turned and gave a final glance at his surroundings, taking in the beauty of the island he had come to know in his time here. As serene and tranquil as it all looked, the dangers of this island were numerous, unending, and perpetually evolving. Anything new that happened across this place was unlikely to survive unless it had luck, skill or was an alpha predator itself. He had learned that the hard way when …

A loud roar sounded out from the forest to Kong's right. Moana and Kakalina looked and saw another strange creature ambling towards Kong – so strange it made Kakalina mutter: "What the…?"

Said creature was about the same height as Kong but was much different. Though it stood on two legs, its body was a kind of silver/grey colour and was knobbly and scale-like in its form; it being held up by two thick legs that pushed and crushed trees with impunity as it advanced towards the lake. A pair of short, Tyrannosaurus-like arms protruded from the front of the creature and ended on a pair of four fingered sharp claws. The head was also like that of a dinosaur but was shorter and taller in form with a pair of glowing orange eyes above a large snout. Below that was a mouth that held hundreds of sharp teeth and emitted hisses and growls as it advanced, each one a sign of intimidation directed solely at the gigantic ape in the lake. What really stood out about the creature were the rows of dorsal fins that ran along the back of the creature, and the long tail that trailed out behind it, but came to a kind of curve near the tip as if it were a second head of sorts (this also had dorsal fins running along it too).

Kong growled and took a few paces back as the creature approached. Though he had never seen this creature before, his instincts told him that its intentions were anything but peaceful. It was likely he had simply crossed into what the creature considered to be its territory and was furious that another being had dared enter it. It stared down the gigantic ape with another growl passing its lips accentuated by a shove of a large tree just on the forest edge. How dare this monkey come here! Well, he was not going to stand for it! He was going to give him a right hiding!

The girls took this chance and began to back away; _slowly_ that is lest they be spotted. Still, they were unable to take their eyes off the spectacle before them. They watched as the creature made its way close the lake's edge, pausing as if hoping its mere presence and the threatening display it had used on its approach would be enough to drive Kong away. The giant ape, however, was unperturbed. Rather, he responded with by beating his closed fists against his chest and then once against his elbow and let out a roar of his own. The power of it seemed to turn Moana and Kakalina's inside to jelly; they could feel them shaking deep under their skin as if they were quivering in fear themselves, terrified that they would end up being spotted and attacked by these two creatures - or whichever of them emerged as the victor.

 _Well that's gonna be a hard one!_ Kakalina mentally told herself. _This new thing is something even I've never seen before; who knows what it can do!  
_

The creature roared Kong and advanced, teeth bared and claws at the ready. Well he was not going to move on his own! Then he would make him. As the creature entered the lake, he turned his body and swung his tail with full momentum at the gigantic ape.

But Kong was ready for him. Just as the tail was about to make contact, he ducked and grabbed it with his hands. With a turn of his hips, he threw the creature into the lake, sending ten-foot waves in all directions. The creature roared in anger and picked itself up, rounding on Kong, snarling, growling, raring to attack. He charged at Kong, swinging at him with his claws, but Kong easily side-stepped him and dropped his fist onto the creature's head that nearly knocked it headfirst into the lake. Moana watched, surprised that Kong was able to fight an enemy so easily.

It was not over yet, however. The creature swung its left clawed hand up. This time it hit home, striking Kong in the chin and knocking him back a few paces. A follow-up came with the other and knocked him onto the side of the lake. Kong was stunned, shaking his head a little as if to try and get rid of the shock inflicted on him. The creature stood over him, glaring down at his fallen enemy with a growl and a sneer. _You dare come here, you get the punishment you deserve._

A yellow glow began to light up from the dorsal fins, slowly but gradually racing up them from the tail to the back of the creature's neck. Kong seemed to sense something bad because he immediately rolled out of the way and, almost simultaneously, launched a kind of kick at the creature's head just as its mouth opened.

One moment, the girls were watching with a mixture of fascination and terror at the fighting behemoths before them. The next, a wall of fire was screaming towards them, the heat almost bearing down onto their flesh and making it burn as if they had been thrown directly into a fire.

"RUN!" Kakalina screamed.

She grabbed Moana and, practically pulling the young chieftain, ran towards the lake and dived to the ground **,** covering her head with her hands (a rather pointless move if anything _did_ fall towards them). A wave of heat exploded behind them as a wall of fire engulfed the trees, yet the two creatures were unfazed and continued to fight one another.

Kong swung two fists into the lake, sending a wave of water over the creature in an attempt to stop its fire breath. Though it splashed the creature, it only served to annoy it and the dorsal fins lit up again. Another burst of fire erupted from its mouth and followed Kong as he moved out of the way, the water boiling to steam behind him. The fire singed his hair a few times as he dodged it. He could not keep this up forever! He had to act, or it was going to roast him, but he had an idea.

As the creature paused to regain its strength, Kong charged and body slammed into him, knocking him over with another thunderous splash. The creature roared in anger and went to get up but received a punch to the face by Kong. Kong then rushed past him and grabbed a fallen tree. Just as his foe was picking itself up, the giant ape slammed it into its mouth, hoping it would stop more fire from being used, and knocked it back into the lake with a fierce kick.

Kakalina looked up at the monsters and then behind her at the flames. That fire was going to spread fast unless they did something. It was not very often that the island got stormy weather, though when it did, it was a real storm. The only thing that could really stop it was that the fire might burn itself out, but given the amount of trees that were present in its immense jungles, that would take a long time.

A loud grunt made her look back at the lake to see Kong holding the creature by the tail and … _lifting_ it out of the water! With a powerful throw, he tossed the creature though the air right at the burning trees. The huge bulk of the creature landed with a loud _BOOM_ that shook the ground as if an earthquake were taking place as it flattened a large section of trees behind them, immediately extinguishing the flames and ending the threat, and possibly the creature too as it did not rise again.

 _Jeez that was a close one!_ Kakalina mentally told herself. _We were lucky not – Moana!_

She looked down at the chieftain beside her to see groggily lifting her head up from the ground, a pained expression on her face accentuated by her gritting her teeth and a light cry passing her lips.

"Oh no!" Kakalina breathed in fear. "Moana, are you okay?!"

Moana tried to reply but found it hard to do so. Her jaw felt like it was locking up, her breathing became strangled and she tried to push herself up once with her arm but it gave out and she collapsed back to the ground again. Too weak. No strength, yet seemingly without reason. What was doing this to her?

On the lake Kong observed the fallen creature and the smoking remains of the trees that lay around it. It had been a short, but quite fierce fight. He bore a small wound on his chin and his hair was singed a little by the heat of the creature's fire. Heavy breaths came from him; he nearly felt like falling asleep in the river then and there but forced himself to stay awake and remain focused on what he was doing out here. He had to find them, if any were left. He thought he saw something near the lake, but his brain was too tired to focus on it more or even go and investigate. _Whatever it is, it can wait._

Kong turned and, with a final glance to make sure his enemy was down – he was – walked right into the forest, following the path the creature had made on its way to the lake. Fallen trees crunched loudly as he moved through the jungle, though they quickly faded away as his body disappeared behind the foliage.

Kakalina breathed a sigh of relief and helped Moana to her feet, placing one arm around her to keep the young woman steady. She went to speak but stopped when she saw something on the ground. Her face lost all colour.

It was a small yellow/orange coloured plant with small, but needle-like thorns sticking out of the sides of the stem. Miniscule red dots were irregularly placed across the petals, along with … what looked like … a small, crimson red drop of …

Kakalina looked down and saw a tiny wound on Moana's neck, just above her collar bone. Her face turned into a look of fright, pure fear. _Oh no!_

"W-what is it?" Moana asked anxiously, seeing the woman's shocked expression.

"That flower," Kakalina told her in a quiet voice, though the fear was evident from a mile away. "You landed on it when I pulled you over here. I'm sorry!"

Moana looked down at the flower and then at the tiny cut on her neck. Though it had stopped oozing what little blood came from it, the effects were already starting to take effect on Moana. She felt a dull pain across her body as if she had a full body form of arthritis or something. Her muscles felt weak and she coughed a little, spitting up a bit of mucus onto the grass.

"What's happening to me?!" she asked Kakalina.

The woman did not answer, but instead looked away. Tears began to form on the edge of her eyes. No! No! This was her fault! How could she be so stupid to let this happen! She just condemned the chieftain of the Montunui people to …

"What's happening, Kakalina?" Moana asked again, this time her voice more demanding but laced with fear.

"That plant is what we call a 'madness plant'," she told Moana as she turned to face her, the look in her eyes clear in that this was something very bad, every word a prophecy of terrible things that would befall her. "When you land on it and if any of the poison inside you-"

"Poison?!" Moana exclaimed, terrified.

"Yes. We have to get you to the lake. There's some caves there with some bats living in them. Don't worry they're normal. We need to cover you in guano. It's the only way we know how to get rid of it."

Moana did not reply. Her gaze fell to the ground, contemplating the situation before them. Being stuck on an island, scattered from the rest of her tribe and being hunted by monstrous creatures was one thing. But … but now she had landed on a plant infused with poison from a plant, one that would … she did not want to think about it.

A part of her momentarily thought on what this would mean for her now. With her life now on a timer – a small one at that – according to Kakalina, then she would only be another casualty on this island. She could imagine her parents and tribe, along with any potential survivors, if any _did_ get off the island, being completely heartbroken beyond repair, but to this place she would just be another piece of meat for the creatures here, another meal to suffice their endless hunger for flesh and blood.

"We need to get going!" Moana spoke up after a few moments, determined not to let this be the end of them, and her. "C'mon. We can get there!"

With newfound strength, she set off around the left side of the lake, pulling Kakalina with her. Above them, the sun began its afternoon descent behind to the west, soon to signal the night, and possibly the death of another human on the island.

 **Author note**

 **Hey fellow FF readers and writers.**

 **Apologies again for the lack of updates. I had a lot of work and severe writers block developing this chapter and the furtherance of the plot from here on. Rest assured, I will not abandon this FF and I think I have the plot sorted out after a lengthy revision.**

 **Take care to you all.**


	12. The graveyard

**Later that afternoon**

Death. That was all they could see around them as they approached and entered the area dubbed 'the Graveyard' by the Skull Islanders. Unoriginal, yet obviously ominous in name, only to be further emphasised by what lay scattered on the ground.

Picture this, dear readers. A large scorched earth-like expanse of territory probably a few hundred metres in size with several pillars of a kind of smoke/fog rising out of large holes scattered about the area, filling the air with a relatively thick cloud layer that restricted visibility to a few metres. Around the sides of the area was a ring-like shape of barren rock, some no bigger than a person's waist whilst others towered over them at heights of around three to ten metres and all were of different shapes and sizes and spaced randomly between one another. Like the ground of this area, they too were scorched, covered in cracks, devoid of any sign of normality within a rock that Moana, in her still, but gradually worsening state of consciousness, had become accustomed to.

This was not what really caught the young chieftain's attention as she and Kakalina, holding the Kalean/Montunui native by the arm with one hand and placing her arm across her back to hold her steady, approached the area. It was the bodies and various piles of bones scattered about the area. Many of them were broken and cracked, some sticking into the ground as if something had jammed them into it. More lay scattered across the surface, some in piles that were in the sky, others on their own as if cast out as useless from whatever creatures these remains had come from. And yet, despite the place probably being a feast for whatever other creatures that inhabited the island – probably even being there right now – it was almost deathly quiet.

 _And I don't like that one-bit_ Kakalina mentally told herself as she looked back at Moana. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

Moana shot her a look that was either annoyed or trying to be annoyed but was stopped by the pain that flared through her every few seconds. Her once shiny brown eyes were now more faded in colour and becoming more bloodshot. Her muscles felt as if they were being stung by a hundred bees all at once whilst she felt all of the energy in her body was being gradually sucked out of her. Several times on the way here from the lake, she had almost lost her footing and would have crashed to the ground had Kakalina not prevented it. Her blurred vision and the constant feeling of immediate collapse or vomiting did not help in any way either.

Seeing her like this only made Kakalina more worried. Even though she wished to get herself off this island and to somewhere safe, she knew she could not leave Moana behind, partly out of fear that if any of the chieftain's party found only her, then her life was guaranteed to be over. Another part of her still felt guilty though. As much as she preferred to deny it and pass it off as an accident, she knew that she personally was responsible for this; not the bringing of the Kaleans to the island, but that Moana had become infected with the poison from the madness plant. _I could have warned her about it! I-I could have saved her. I didn't bring them here to kill them, but I could – no, I_ _ **should**_ _have warned them._

Kakalina knew what she had done, she knew the guilt lay with her. And she was sure that Moana knew it too.

The Skull Islander woman placed her arm around the young chieftain and began to gently carry her forward. "C'mon, we need to get through here."

They moved into the 'Graveyard', their forms quickly becoming enveloped in the mist and fog, their visibility greatly reduced and their senses, along with their paranoia, on high alert. As they moved, Moana surveyed her surroundings. _Fog. Fog. More fog._ The ground felt warm and rough beneath her feet and there was a slight, pungent smell of death in the air. **  
**It made the young chieftain sick, or _more_ sick, to her stomach and she gagged a little. The smells and sights of this place were really getting to her.

But what really stood out to her was that they were alone, yet she felt that something was watching them. From somewhere within the folding and shifting clouds of the fog, a pair of eyes, or maybe even several, or dozens, were watching them, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. She tried to block it out, but Moana felt that something was out there. She could only imagine it crawling, or running or whatever way they moved, towards them and attacking them in some grotesque way. Ripping them apart or carrying her away for it to eat in private or for its young.

Or maybe it would play with them, toy with their fear and paranoia like a serial killer enjoying in tormenting the victim(s) before delivering the kill. For all she knew, something could be watching them right now. Maybe it would growl loudly, or hiss at them, distracting them before charging from another direction. Or maybe it would be like a shadow, blending into the surroundings like a ghost, moving silently, yet still emanating a terrifying aura wherever it went.

 _We need to get out of here now_ Moana mentally told herself.

They moved on silently through the Graveyard, Kakalina glancing at their surroundings every so often to make sure they were okay, though she too doubted it would do any good. Any smart predator would remain just beyond their line of sight until it was ready to strike. Even though she had been near the Graveyard several times, this was the first time she ventured so deeply into it. Several others had done so beforehand and reported back the various miniscule or colossal skeletons that dotted the area. That had been around the times of the troubles and just shortly before they had moved everyone into the two villages where the group had landed a couple of days ago. She had never really wanted to go through this place; the stories were enough to give her nightmares, but now here she was. They had to carry on, there was no way they could turn back now.

As they passed a few large curved bones, no doubt the ribs of something, that lay scattered across the ground, Kakalina felt her grip on Moana loosen. The young chieftain was now barely walking. She was more or less dragging her feet behind her as they walked. Kakalina tried to hold her up and walk on, but Moana was proving to be heavier than she thought. She led them over to a large rock situated in a small clearing between some more bones, each one the size of a person, and gently set Moana down on the ground, allowing her to rest her back against it.

"Moana, you're getting worse," Kakalina said worryingly.

The young chieftain looked up at her, only just managing to withstand the heaviness from her eyelids and the gradual sapping of strength from her body. She could barely keep her head up; evidenced by it drooping every few seconds. Her chest rose and fell heavily as if she had run a marathon, her breathing was becoming wheezier and her skin was starting to turn grey across her collar bone area. Kakalina felt panic within her when she saw it and knelt down in front of Moana, gently lifting her head up by her chin, revealing the whites of her eyes to have become more bloodshot, and the natural chocolate brown colour had become more faded.

In short, her body was well and truly shutting down. She was on deaths door, and it would only be a matter of time before she and him crossed paths.

"We need to hurry. Get you to the caves near the lake and find some guano to get rid of it." Kakalina said, surveying her surroundings, trying to find her bearings so they could get out of here.

"Kakalina!" Moana breathed, visibly struggling to do so, but she persisted. "W-what's happening to me?!" she paused and inhaled deeply, each word taking a lot of strength to speak. "I mean, what's … going to happen?"

"The poison from the 'Madness Plant' is starting to really affect your body, Moana," she explained, taking her hand in hers and clutching it tightly. "I don't know what it does exactly inside your body, but it affects people the same way it is to you now. And that's all before the worst symptom takes effect. That's why we need guano; its scent helps remove the infection."

Moana went to reply, but coughed and spit up some mucus, spilling it onto her skirt.

"Don't speak, it'll only sap more of your strength. We need to-" She yelped as a hand grabbed her roughly around the front of her clothes and was pulled towards Moana, the young chieftain's face full of fury, eyes bloody red and burning as she looked maliciously upon her companion.

 _"Don't tell me what to do! Get me out of this, you bitch!"_ she seethed … and then released her as she became frightened at her sudden explosion of anger. "W-what was that?" she asked Kakalina, her voice quivering with fright.

Kakalina swallowed hard, trying to compose herself after Moana's sudden outburst. " _That_ was the poison taking effect," she explained. She stood up and looked around, trying to find the right way out of this deathly land.

Moana, despite her body being weak, began to hyperventilate; panicked, terrified, afraid. "I-I-I don't w-wanna die! I don't wanna die!" she cried quietly, tears forming in her eyes. Not now! Not before she saw her parents once more! No! No!

"SSShhhh! Moana, it's okay," Kakalina tried to reassure her, but the tone of her voice betrayed the false hope of her words. "We have to get moving now! Before it's too late."

She stood up, quickly scanning the area around them in the hopes of finding the way out of this deathly land. Try as she might, she was unable to find a clear way out of this area; the fog was making it impossible. And if something were to come across them and pursue them, then it was likely to be over for them.

 _To Lalotai with it!_ Kakalina mentally told herself.

They were going to have to take the risk; it was either that or sit here and wait to be devoured, or for Moana to be fully affected by the poison.

"C'mon, Moana!" Kakalina said, reaching down and wrapping her arms around the young chieftain's waist and back to hoist her to her feet.

She stopped. Her ears perked up and eyes darted to her surroundings. _Footsteps._ That could only mean ...

She and Moana, who, despite finding it hard to do much given her body's growing weakness, looked over at the source of the noise to the latter's left, listening out. There it was again! It was definitely footsteps; the unmistakable pitter-patter of feet on dirt clear as day to them. Kakalina held her breath, taking a big step back and pulling Moana with her, ready to run with the young chieftain – or carry her to be more precise.

Wait! Her ears perked up. They listened for the sounds she heard. _Voices?_

 _That meant … s_ he thought to herself.

A figure passed nearby, the mist encasing them in anonymity. They stopped, pausing, standing motionless as if they had seen Kakalina and Moana, or had thought it had seen them and was now fixed on them, waiting to see if they would move or even run. One second passed. Two. Three.

"Kale!" A voice called out from somewhere in the fog behind the figure. "Wait. We can't keep up! Kapono's wound is getting worse."

Kakalina eyes lit up. "Kale! Guys!" she called out.

The figure ran forward into view, bursting out of the fog like a creature freeing itself from the grasp of an inescapable void and stepping back into reality for the first time. Upon seeing Kakalina, he almost burst with joy. Then his gaze fell on Moana and it fell.

"W-what happened?!" he asked worryingly as Moana inhaled deeply and coughed, another pile of mucus falling at her feet.

"She fell on one of the madness plants," Kakalina explained. Kale gasped, hands clasping over his mouth when he heard this. "We have to get to the lake and find some guano, quickly!"

More footsteps came from behind. A large shape appeared and moved closer – some deformed-looking, wide shape with more than two legs, some of which dragged behind it. Grunts, both deep and light, followed its every move. Then it emerged from the fog, three figures, two men and a woman. One of the men and the woman were holding up the other man, who had a large torn leaf that was tainted dark red covering his side. The man, Tama, and the Kalean woman, pulled their accomplice along, but one look at their faces would tell anyone it was hard considering what they had been through.

Moana, despite her declining health, became immediately alert at the sight of the group before her. She pushed away from Kakalina, not caring if she could manage or not, and stumbled over to them.

"G-Guys!" she cried weakly, nearly falling had Kale and Kakalina not grabbed her and straightened her up.

The three came to a halt before her and she saw the full extent of their conditions.

Tama looked tired and had visible cuts and bruises all over his body. His foot was wrapped up in a few leaves held together with a stick – they also tainted a dark red colour, the leaves. His shoulder too held what looked like a bite mark with several punctures around the side. Something had obviously tried to grab him but failed. As for the Kalean woman, Aheta, she had a series of bruises and bite marks up and down her legs and arms, and her dress was torn and bloodied. Their expressions were tired, frightened. On the verge of giving up that there was no safe-haven for them here on this island.

Kapono was the worst. His face had been scratched, beaten and bitten by a manner of all things alive and not in the time the groups had been separated from each other. His eyes flickered, mouth hanging slightly open and a string of strangled breaths passing his lips. And the wound he had received on his side had only worsened his deteriorating condition.

"What happened?" Moana asked as she managed to stand on her own two feet; Kakalina and Kale holding her by the arms.

"We ran into each other near one of the rivers that was leading in this direction before it went underground," Kale explained, glancing momentarily at their surroundings in fear that something was sneaking up on them. "As we ran, more of those creatures appeared on all sides. We thought we lost them because they backed off a bit, and all this time they were leading us into a trap."

Moana and Kakalina stared at Kale, lost for words.

"It was horrible! They attacked us and Tihoti was grabbed and …" he trailed off, gasping a little as he tried to utter the words, but could not. "We ran on and on. Hoping for somewhere to hide, and Kapono got attacked and had his side mauled. It was only by a loud roar some distance away that the creatures got spooked and ran off. We took that opportunity to scatter – though, not without some injuries." He gestured to the others with a wave of his arm.

Moana and Kakalina could do nothing but stare at each other, lost for words, a complete collapse of any sense of hope evident as it dawned on them how serious their predicament was. They knew, or better had been reminded that their time was running out, and with another one of their surviving group gone, their turn to meet the gods could possibly be just around the corner. With the various creatures they had seen, and more frighteningly had _not,_ something was going to spot them and see them as a meal soon.

Moana's drive kicked back in, her mind urging her to get back on track fast.

"We need to move!" She tried to move in the direction they were going, but Kakalina and Kale stopped her.

"Moana, slow down! You're go-"

She rounded on him, eyes once again blazing red, fury aimed directly at Kale, who backed away from her in fear she was going to punch him.

 _"Shut up! Don't tell me what to do, you piece of shit!"_ Moana yelled at him.

Everyone, even Kapono, who was barely managing to lift his head, looked stunned over at their chieftain. What did she say?! What was happening to her?! Why was she being so aggressive, this was not like Moana! What was wrong with her?

"Moana, please! Calm down!" Kakalina pleaded, looking over at Tama for help.

Moana rounded on her, teeth clenched, snarling a look of concentration, and fists at the ready to swing at Kakalina. The younger chieftain looked down at Kakalina's hold of her arm and then back at her with a look of: _"How dare you hold onto my arm!"_ The woman released and backed away. Moana took a step towards her … then froze and shook her head, realisation seeping back into her mind. She glanced quickly, nervously at the others.

"What happened?!" She cried, just stopping herself from falling over, feeling her sudden bout of strength immediately fade from her body as if it had been sucked out of her by the gods. "W-what did I do?!"

Nobody said anything. Only glanced from one another, afraid to speak or move in fear they would bare the brunt of her wrath next. Moana looked at them and insisted again what happened.

"The madness plant is affecting you more, Moana," Kakalina told her solemnly. "We need to get you to the lake. And Kapono -" she looked at the injured Kalean man and muttered in a resigned fashion. "We'll do what we c-"

Footsteps. Heavy footsteps came from all around them, somewhere in the deep midst of the fog. The group fell silent and listened. Listened to the footsteps grow louder, rushing by, scraping the ground, and yet no additional sounds of growls or barks or yips followed. Moana looked panicked at her surroundings, as did the others, fearing that at any moment something was going to charge out of the fog and attack them. Kakalina and Kale backed away towards a rock, pressing themselves against it; Tama did the same, pulling Kapono and the Kalean woman with him.

"What do we do?!" Tama whispered in a terrified voice.

"Shut up!" Kale hissed at him. "They'll hear us!"

A low growl emanated from the fog, joined almost immediately by another, and then another as if in chorus. The group stared terror-stricken at their surroundings. More shuffling of feet came from the left, then the right. Kakalina gulped audibly loud, eyes darting around frantically, desperate to try and see what was around them. More growling. _Oh god, make it stop!_

As if a switch had been flicked, the growling ceased. The group turned to look at one another, partly in disbelief, and part hopeful that their predatory stalkers had vacated the area. Were they gone?

Kale turned his body and scanned his surroundings again as if copying his cousin's moves. Nothing. Maybe they were finally safe.

A growl came from directly behind him, a deep, guttural growl, and he stopped dead – an ironic feeling – and his shoulders slumped.

"Aw, shit."

Moana and Kakalina looked over at him. Something rushed out of the fog from the side and slammed into him, pulling him into the thick haze so fast that he and it were a blur. His screams filled the air as more shadows rushed through the fog, their forms barely visible as if the thick covering tried to conceal their horrific forms from the world, and seemed to pounce before fully disappearing, only to elicit more screams and the sound of ripping and audible cracking of bones.

"Run!" Kakalina exclaimed.

The group dispersed within seconds, hoping that wherever they were running would lead them to safety – whatever it might be. Tama ran, carrying Kapono over his shoulder, and ran with Aheti in the direction Moana and Kakalina had come; Kakalina had taken off away from there, and Moana, struggling given her condition, just ran in any direction, stumbling slightly. The sound of Kale's screams echoing in her ears, death calling out to her, a call that seemed to be saying that she would soon join the many others who had died on this island.

It seemed like forever she was moving. Her senses were going haywire, yet could not seem to find any bearing or locate the sound of the sound of … whatever had come into the fog after them, but she knew they were there. She could feel their eyes on her; predatory; hungry for flesh and blood, and she was going to be it for them. Like with Kale, these things would grab her and rip her apart. They could even be stalking her right now.

 _No! I have to get out of here!_

She pressed on, holding onto various large rocks and more of the bones for support. Somewhere nearby she heard the calls of someone, but it was too far and she was too out of it to be able to discern who the voice belonged to. Another rock she passed. Before her was what looked to be a ribcage facing skywards with a few rocks scattered amongst the bones. _Perfect!_ She could hide here and then try and sneak out when whatever was here had passed – _if_ they didn't find her first.

Moana stumbled forward, the ribcage constantly shifting and moving up and down in her eyes **.** After what seemed like an eternity **,** she reached it and stumbled into the remains, collapsing onto the ground, her body relieved at her taking a much-needed breather from all the running and the fear of being eaten. She laid on the ground, staring up at the fog covered sky above her and at her surroundings. Kale's screams had stopped by now and she could no longer hear if the others were alive or not. She wanted to get up, to run out and call for them, to help them – well, _almost all_ of them – but doing that was certain suicide. _Maybe if I had a weapon_. A mental slap. _What good is a weapon gonna be out here? Besides…"_ She sat up and looked around, sighing heavily at the very bareness of this area, a sheer barren wasteland. _There's only rocks and huge bones and-"_

She stopped when her eyes fell upon something that lay cracked and broken on the ground next to one of the rocks, something that made her heart stop and all feeling be lost from her body.

On the ground about ten feet in front of her was a large piece of bone wrapped in rope and some various markings scattered across its surface. About half-way up, the bone started to curve outwards slightly, but anything above that initial starting point was gone as it looked to have been cut off. Where the rest of it was, she did not know.

 _Is that …?_

Moana crawled over to the piece of bone, seeing that it was big, bigger than her torso to be exact, and picked it up between her hands. It was quite heavy, likely because of her lack of strength, but as she ran her hands over the bone, the realisation of what it was solidified in her mind. She dropped it on the ground in a way as if it had bitten her and had reacted in pain.

 _It's … It's … No! No! N-not him! No!_

Tears began to fall, her chest heaving with sobs. Despite her sapping strength, she knew what this meant.

 _No!_ It couldn't be the case! H-he couldn't be dead! How could he … even get here! This was hellish, this island, why _would_ he come here! If the hook was like that, then … then …

Moana fell forward to the ground, hitting it with her fist, sobbing quietly.

"Maui!" she cried in her arms.

She wanted it to end. She wanted it be over for her right here – everything she had done here had been a failure. She had brought her people here and they had all been slaughtered and crushed and eaten by the various predators on this island. _Some chieftain! And now my friend is gone! I can't believe it_ , _this_ can't _be real._

Unfortunately, it was. The deaths, the chaos, the seeing her people be eaten and torn apart by various creatures the likes she had never seen before. All of it was real. Moana did not know what to do. Then again, what _could_ she do? They were stuck here, running towards what might not even be a way to get off the island with only a handful of her and Kakalina's people left and-

The moment she thought of that name, something inside Moana snapped. Looking up from her arm, she glared daggers at the surrounding fog as if searching for her – _that_ woman, that _bitch! When I get my hands on her -_

The anger coursed its way through her veins, awakening some hidden reserves of strength, all driven by that one desire. Her hands gripped tightly together, her teeth clenched, her breathing became heavier, almost snarling like some demented creature, a mother angry at the sight of its children being slain by a predator and now out for revenge.

When Kakalina crossed Moana again … on her demigod's body, she-she would make that woman _pay!_

Moana tried to get up and was successful in rising to her feet, but had to hold onto one of the ribs to steady herself. She scanned her surroundings, trying to figure out where to go so she could leave and find her target. _Forget getting off this island!_ She seemed to mentally snarl to herself, asserting that this happened above all else, even if it meant keeping the others alive. _I'm gonna find and get Kakalina and-_

"Chief!" a woman's voice exclaimed.

Moana looked over and saw Aheti standing between two of the large rib bones, her arm a little bloodied from having scratched it on a sharp piece of an animal's head when they had scattered moments ago. Her knees and legs were pockmarked with bruises and scrapes, again having fallen over a few times from running. Her face was worried and she kept looking over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them.

"Chief, c'mon! We have to leave now!" Aheti said, walking into the ribs over to her and putting her arm around Moana's back and chest, holding up.

"W-where's …" Moana hissed, the anger seething through her clenched teeth, something that made the young woman with her glance of fear. "W-where's the others?" she managed to breathe out.

"We got separated," Aheti told her lowly. "I guess we'll just have to find a way out of here and then go from there to the centre of the island – _if_ we make it, that is," she finished with a grim tone.

 _Not before she is!_ Moana thought icily as she nodded and began to move with Aheti out from the ribs and back into the fog, both of them praying nothing would see them and come after them.

Providing they survived, dear readers, the next few hours would be hell.

 **Author's note: Hello, my fellow readers. It has been a long time!**

 **As expected, I once again have to sincerely apologise for the long absence from updating this FF as a heavy schedule, workload and other things have prevented me from being able to write when I want to write. I initially planned to post this chapter in January, but the aforementioned made me push if off to now.**

 **Rest assured, this FF will not be** stopped **or abandoned, it will be finished. It will just take a bit longer than I initially planned. I hope you are all doing well and look forward to future updates soon.**


	13. Showdown at the lake

To say that getting out of the fog and continuing towards the imagined safety in what was thought to be the right direction was easy would be an incredible understatement. One would not only have to figure out exactly which way to go, but to also survive the various predators that were undoubtedly lurking around, along with any carnivorous plants or unknown species that had yet to be seen by those currently on the island.

And doing this _while_ practically carrying a woman slowly, but surely approaching the brink of death was not making it any easier.

Aheti held onto Moana as tightly as she could, hoping to avoid having to drag her chief across the ground on the way to, what they hoped, was the lake. They had been on the run for the last few hours, having managed to get through the graveyard without any more problems, and then got through the neighbouring forest and rocky area, following a river that flowed into a large past them into a hole, going in the opposite direction in the hopes of finding the source. Hopefully it was the lake.

Aheti grunted as she pulled her chieftain with all her strength onwards through a clump of trees. Even though she was an athletic woman and had a good deal of strength within her, she found it hard having to practically carry Moana almost non-stop for hours on end. It did not help that the chief was stuck in the area between consciousness and unconsciousness, occasionally coughing up bile and even a bit of blood. Aheti continually talked to her in order to keep her awake, asking her if they needed to rest or if she needed to drink or anything, but always the chieftain had responded in the negative and affirmed they kept moving, much to the worry, and annoyance, of her fellow Kalean.

What worried Aheti the most was the uncertainty of many a multitude of things that lay before them. First were their fellow survivors. Where were they? Did they make it out of the graveyard or not? If not, then what were Aheti and Moana to do? Could they float the boat by themselves and get back to the beach and off the island? Probably not. It would be too far and there was no telling if anything was going to be waiting along or in the river on the way to the sea.

And then there was the chieftain. Moana was getting worse every second, with her speaking now minimal and breathing itself almost a whisper through her lips. What was to happen if the chieftain died and Aheti happened to be the only one left, Te Fiti forbid? Where could she go? Would she be able to get off the island on her own? Even if she did, there was no telling what fate would befall her out in the open ocean. She could only see herself drifting aimlessly on the waves, slowly dying of thirst and hunger as the sun would beat down mercilessly on her skin, sapping all strength and life from her slowly, no doubt painfully until she expired completely. Would she be found adrift in the sea? Maybe, but there was a greater chance that a storm would overturn whatever craft she would use, and her body would sink to the bottom of the sea to be a feast for the various sea creatures that lurked in the depths.

She shook these morose thoughts from her mind. No, despite everything that was going on, she _had_ to get to the lake with the chief. She could not give up on hope and just sit here and wait for something to come and eat them, no matter how possible that seemed. They had to carry on, for as long as they could, come hell or high water.

 _The 'hell' part being our biggest problem right now_ she mentally told herself as she carried on through the brush.

* * *

With a deep exhale, Aheti collapsed onto the ground which was the slope of a small hill, practically dropping Moana next to her. Sweat ran down her head, breathing heavy from exhaustion, her body aching from the constant walking. Even though she knew they had to keep moving, her body had been screaming for a break and she had to concede. Giving the surroundings a quick glance, she hoped nothing was going to happen upon them, or they would be dead meat – _literally_.

Looking down at the chieftain, she saw her struggle to lift herself from the ground and look around as if she were some kind of new-born creature taking in her surroundings for the first time. Her eyes were heavy and flickered slowly, Aheti only occasionally catching a glance of their whites now almost completely red. Moana lift herself up more, but her arms seemed to have no strength and she would have fallen face first onto the ground had Aheti not grabbed her and held her steady.

"Chief!" she exclaimed with worry. "Chief!" she said again.

Moana tried to reply, but it came out as nothing more than a strangled breath before she coughed up more mucus, this time laced with something ruby red.

 _Oh no!_ Aheti grabbed the chief and pulled her to her feet, putting one of Moana's arms around her shoulder and wrapping her own arm around the chieftain's waist and, though tired from fatigue and having constantly been on the move, began to move forward again up the hill.

"C'mon, Chief!" she grunted as she practically dragged Moana up the hill. "Don't give up. We can't be far, we-" she almost tripped, but steadied herself. "-we can't give up. We're almost on the way to somewhere where we can get home."

Moana mumbled something that even calling it whispering would have been like a public declaration to a crowd of onlookers. She was slipping in and out of consciousness again. Who knew how long she had left?! If she died then Aheti would be all on her own, though likely only for a short time if a predator happened upon her and the deceased corpse.

Aheti carried on, pulling Moana forward with all her might, until finally they passed over the crest of the hill to gaze on what lay before them.

With the forest at their back, stretched out before them was a large, mostly flat expanse that seemed to stretch on for miles to the mountains, now standing tall and mighty as a king on his highest point and looking out over his domain. Partially to the left and right sides of the expanse, Aheti could forest forming another kind of ring, though further views were blocked by rocky spires and/or small hills. The ground was covered with moss and grass, randomly dotted as if the island could not decide what it wanted it to be and so decided to just throw it together. Small ponds dotted the ground around them, but it was what stood far ahead of them towards the rocky spires and hills that drew Aheti and – though faltering – Moana's attention. A small cluster of wooden buildings, which, even from their position some hundreds of feet away, were laced with holes across the roofs and sides. One was even noticeably split into two between a left and right; both sides practically a pile of ruins save for a small section of wall on what was the left side of the building.

"Chief!" Aheti exclaimed ecstatically. "Look! Is this it?! It has to be! We have to have made it!"

They had to have made it! They just had to be in the middle of the island – after all it was meant to be near the base of the mountains that dominated its centre. This just had to be it! It would be soul crushing if this was not their intended location and they had to continue in what would be an increasingly vain hope of trying to find their only supposed way off the island. Or worse, if they had gone in the _wrong direction_ and were now lost. Such thoughts did run through Aheti's mind. What if they had gone the wrong way? It was possible considering what had happened to them since they were forced to flee their makeshift camp. If that was the case, then … what would the point be? They would be left stranded, all hope fully extinguished, waiting for the nearest predator to come along and have them for its nocturnal meal.

 _No!_ Aheti was not prepared to give up. _Not yet! We still have a chance._ That was all they had to go on, but for her it was enough.

Aheti pulled Moana closer to her and began to move them on towards the buildings, every step one closer to their salvation, their freedom from this hellhole.

 _If_ they made it.

* * *

"Kapono! Wake up!"

Kakalina shook his form wildly as he rested on a few planks of wood that had been part of the wall of one of the buildings. Tama stood nearby, nervously glancing at their surroundings, fearing that his companion's cries were going to bring them unwanted attention.

"Kapono!" Kakalina cried out in fear. "Kapono! Kapono! Please!"

No response came from said person. His eyes – one closed and the other half-open with only the sclera visible – lifeless, his mouth slightly open akin to a person simply amid a deep sleep accompanied by some snoring. The only thing was his chest was flat and unmoving, his arms lay limp by his side, and his skin was cold to Kakalina's touch. All clear signs of what had happened, yet that did not stop her from trying in vain to hopefully bring him back.

"Kapono!" she cried, this time much weaker, her voice hoarse from the lack of sleep and constant running. "Oh please!" She threw her hands together and began to cry out/beg loudly. "Please, Te Fiti help us! Please don't let him be gone! Please help us!"

Tama grabbed her by the shoulders, not taking his eyes off their surroundings. "Kakalina, c'mon! It's too late!"

"No!" She shook him off. "Tama! We-we have to save him! He's still alive!"

"Kakalina!" Tama grabbed her, this time more roughly, his tone uncharacteristically sharper and firm, even angry. "Listen to me!" he hissed at her, turning her towards him and grabbing her shoulders tightly and giving her a little shake. " _It's too late!_ He's-" he paused and sighed deeply, hating the very words he had to tell her. "He's gone!"

Kakalina did not respond, but her gaze drifted slowly to the ground, her companion's words stopping any and all movement from her as the reality of their predicament set in. Tama was right. Kapono _was_ dead. They had lost another one to the island. Oh, it was just like when they were here with their entire tribe months ago being repeated all over again, and Kapono was now the latest casualty, and he was not even from here and had no qualm to even be here in the first place besides helping his chief. Oh, they had been so close! They had made it to the centre of the island, but now the

And what of their intended goal here? ( _Well it's obviously failed!_ Kakalina mentally told herself). They had come here to save the last of their people, placing all their bets on the chance that there would be people here when they came back. Yet, all they got was abandoned and destroyed villages, missing – and now most definitely dead – people, and horrific predators that had torn their entire … rescue operation apart, literally. And …

 _It's all my fault! All of this! I should have been more up front._

But in Kakalina's mind it was too late. Their group was scattered and gone, Kale was dead and now so was Kapono, and Aheti and Moana were -

Kakalina paused for a moment as if lost in thought, frozen in time, contemplating what had just run through her mind, a sudden realisation emerging.

Then, she grabbed Tama's arms hard and looked fearfully into his face. "Oh no, Tama!" she breathed, yet the anxiety in her tone was clear. "What about Moana? What if she comes here and see's this?! She'll … she'll …"

Tama cut her off. "That's if she's still alive." He hated himself for saying it, but it was the possible reality, or even _the_ reality given their circumstances. "Look, we can't do anything more for Kapono. We need to-"

He stopped and looked up past Kakalina's head into the distance. Something was approaching them. Kakalina looked in that direction too and saw it hobbling towards the buildings they were near. Curious, Kakalina broke way from Tama and took a few steps towards it. The hobbling form became clearer. It was …

Kakalina gasped, clasping hand over her mouth. "It's Moana and Aheti!"

"What?!" Tama ran up next to her, astounded at the very fact that these two who had been separated from them hours ago were _still_ alive. "That's – that's not possible!"

But it was. Even though they were a bit of a distance away, Kakalina called out to them as loud as she could go. They stopped and turned in their direction, revealing Moana's form literally hanging onto Aheti's. Aheti called out to them in relief and began to drag Moana over.

"Oh no!" Kakalina whimpered as she and Tama rushed forward, wanting to ask where they had been and how bad Moana was, but seeing said woman in her condition made them speechless. Kakalina took Moana's arm from Aheti, giving the Kalean woman a break, and Tama took the other arm. Moana barely acknowledged the change in helpers, her head low and breathing now heavy and strangled with trails of mucus and spit covering her chin and mouth.

"Set her down here, guys," Tama said, helping Kakalina put Moana on the ground against a rock that was near where they left Kapono. "Are you okay?" he asked Aheti.

"Just about," she answered, massaging her shoulder from all the heavy lifting. "We carried on through the forest after we made it out of the graveyard. Just hoped we were going in the right direction."

"Don't worry, you were. We've made it," Tama informed her, his tone happier than before, the dread and defeat it had been for the past few days dissipating. "This dockland area is, or was, where we put our ships for fishing in this part of the island. So, there should be some boats there in the main building next to the lake. If we can find one, then we can ride it down one of the rivers that comes out near where we landed."

Aheti nodded as all eyes now fell on Moana, her form almost still save for the slow rise and fall of her chest and the occasional flicker of her eyes.

"Te Fiti help us," Kakalina muttered anxiously, wishing that said deity would appear and restore Moana to her normal self. "How long has she been like this?" She asked Aheti.

The Kalean woman shook her head in a defeated manner. "About an hour. She stopped speaking properly when we were going through the forest. I tried to keep her occupied with talking, but she wouldn't respond. She's too weak. She can barely lift her head and her eyes," Aheti motioned towards said body part of her chieftain.

Kakalina gently lifted Moana's head and lifted her eye open, her face turning white upon seeing how red Moana's eye had become. If they were that red, then …

She looked up at the others, her face telling them all they had to know about Moana's condition. "How bad is she?" Aheti asked, the demand and fear evident.

"Not good," was all Kakalina could reply. "Look, when we find a boat, we can take it to the rock pillars where there's some bat caves. There'll be guano and we can apply it to her and it'll help get rid of the infection."

"What if it doesn't work, though?" Aheti asked.

Kakalina went to answer when, from somewhere, possibly everywhere, a roar filled the air. It was high and low at the same time, the mixture of a bear growl and a human scream, starting heavy and lasted a few seconds, ending in the scream. Then all was silent, _deathly_ quiet – a fitting metaphor for what was likely going to happen soon.

Kakalina and Tama exchanged terrified glances whilst Aheti was frantically looking all around them, trying to pinpoint the source of the roar. Yet, it seemed to come from all directions, a clear show of its power, meaning whatever made it was going to be deadly, fierce, and big.

"We need to get inside now!" Kakalina urged, grabbing Moana's arm and, with Tama and Aheti's help, lifted her off the ground. "Over there!" she nodded her head at a large, wooden building covered with holes about a hundred feet from their position.

As they began to move over towards the building, hoping that nothing was going to come crashing out of the forest after them, Aheti asked. "Guys, what do we do if there's no boats?"

Neither of her two companions replied.

* * *

 _That roar!_

He turned in its direction, his form standing tall and mighty over the jungle that lay spread out below. A flock of birds fled at the sound in the opposite direction as if in fear it was going to come for them personally. In the distance, the sun too retreated the last of its rays behind the mountains as if in fear. From the opposite direction, the night began to crawl across the sky.

 _A fitting setting. Light makes a run for it as the darkness approaches. Something bad will happen to what, or whoever made her roar._

His mind rested on that one word: _whoever._ If it was them, then … He had to find them before she did. Find them and get them to safety. But where to go? He could no longer fly, not since …

He mentally picked a direction and rushed that way, hoping that it was the right one.

* * *

The group set Moana down near the wall just inside the main building and in front of the opening that led to where the boats would be left. Looking around, they could see it was a mess here just as it had been back at the village near the beach where they had landed days ago. Holes dotted the ceiling and wall; statues of various gods and demi-gods and pieces of tapestry lay scattered and torn and broken across the floor. Several daggers and sharpened spears and bows and arrows were scattered across the floor, along with a few clothes and, grimly, the odd trace of blood. All was quiet and still, the moment of death

Tama muttered under his breath as Kakalina lay her hand across Moana's head, trying to stop herself from tearing up at the young woman who was now just barely hanging onto life. Moana's breathing had slowed down to almost nothing, her chest barely rising more than an inch before falling. As much as she hoped for her to pull through, Kakalina knew the most likely fate for the Kalean chieftain.

"I'm sorry, Moana!" she whispered, wiping her eyes. "I really am! This is all my fault!"

"Is she okay?" Aheti asked as she knelt down next to the chieftain's form.

Kakalina just nodded lightly, forcing a small smile on her face as she met Aheti's gaze. "Y-yeah, she's – she's doing fine," she lied. "Tama, go check and see if there are any boats."

Tama obeyed, walking through the doorway into a wide space with an opening into the lake before him. Along both walls were some planks laid out to act as a walkway with a third between them. Large pieces of rope and debris lay scattered across the floors and were floating in the water below, some of it drifting out into the lake. A few weeds grew unchallenged around the ground where either the wood had been broken, or the where the water met the ground and was able to provide said weeds with the water it needed to grow. Holes dotted the ceiling, a large piece missing from the roof above the space where the boats would be.

And, to his surprise, in left space lay a large, wooden boat about thirty feet long and about twenty feet wide with closed sails and several large oars tied up across it. It was oval shaped and had several painted markings across the side of it, one of them being an island that was black. Next to that an outline of a bipedal figure that stood with its feet wide apart and arms out by its side with the elbows pointing outwards. The rest of the arms and hands were missing, but Tama could see from looking at it that they were meant to be pointing inwards towards each other, forming a sort of diamond shape from the shoulders down to where the hands would meet near the 'groin' of this thing. Why it was there, he personally did not know, nor as he rushed over to the boat and gave it a quick glance over assessment for any damage why there was rope tying it to the docks.

 _Could it be … someone was here, or had been?_

He looked over at the other dock and saw several pieces of rope that lay on the walkways, all three of them having been visibly cut. If that was the case, then … surely someone … had to be alive.

 _If they are, then where was the other boat? Where were_ they _, and why had they left this one here? Was someone meant to come back here?_

"Tama, is everything okay?" Kakalina called from the next room.

"Yeah, we have a boat here, but the other one is gone, and by the looks of it, it's been cut." He called back.

Kakalina came into the room and, after seeing what he meant, walked over and picked up one of the ropes, examining it in her hands. It had been cut with a dagger, which she found on the floor behind an oar that had been dumped there as well. She looked out across the lake, scanning the distant shore for any trace of movement. Nothing. She looked back at the rope in her hands, and then at Tama. Both at a loss for words.

Under normal circumstances, this would not be a cause for concern. This was a fishing area after all, it was expected to have a boat here and one or more out on the lake to do their work. These, however, were not _normal circumstances._ With the village being destroyed, every settlement they had come across being in the same condition, and everyone who was meant to be on the island dead or missing (most likely the former), they expected the boats to either be sunk or damaged beyond repair, or taken to be used to escape. Obviously, the former had not happened, but the latter could not have either, right? Why would anyone only take one boat? Were they going to come back for it after scouting out, or were they going to leave it in the hopes that someone else who might still be alive would take it and follow them?

 _Well, we are going to use it. We're not going to leave it here. We need it._ Kakalina told herself.

"Alright, let's get Moana on board and get out of here. We'll head for the rocks and quickly find some guano for her." She told Tama. "After that, we'll-"

A heavy thud made the building shake a little. It was not enough to knock the two off their feet, but enough for them to notice it. _Thud!_ There it was again. _Thud!_ And Again.

"What's that?!" Aheti cried out from the next room.

"SSSSHHHH!" Tama shushed her loudly.

They fell silent, grabbing onto something as the thuds came closer and closer, causing the ground to shake more. A few loose things were knocked into the water and some pieces of wood fell from the ceiling. A growl emanated from outside as whatever it was approached their location. Kakalina hid in one of the corners and ducked down, covering her mouth in fear. Tama jumped onto the boat and hid behind the mast, hoping that the tied-up sail would be a good hiding place. Aheti grabbed one of the daggers from the floor and held it close, crouching down near Moana. She glanced down at her and almost gasped when she saw that she was no longer moving, her chest was not rising and one of her eyes was closed, whilst the other was half-open, only a dark red colour greeting whoever would look upon it.

The building rocked more as the thing approached, the sound of wood cracking loudly from outside.

And then it stopped. Silence.

Tama and Kakalina exchanged nervous glances, listening out for anything that might tell them what this creature outside was doing. Nothing. Save for the sound of water gently moving under the dock, it was deathly quiet. They could not even hear the thing breathing.

 _ **CRASH!**_ The roof of the section the two islanders were in flew off violently, raining debris and leaves all over them and into the lake. Kakalina screamed and Tama swore loudly. Covering their head with their arms, they looked up and saw what was standing over them.

It was huge, at least from their perspective. It had a long body about twenty-five feet long with, though the humans could not see, a thick tail that ended in a large, thick, knobbly club. The main part of the body was thick and scaly with two powerful hind legs that ended on three toes with sharp claws on the end of each one. A pair of short, but muscular arms jutted out from the lower part of the front of the main body section, each one ending on a hand that held four sharp claws with long bony fingers. Above the arms was a wide neck covered with a multitude of feathers akin to what one would find on a bird. After that came the head, and it was a horrifying sight. It was lizard-like with a wide rear, but it thinned at the snout where a pair of large holes for the nose were located. A pair of small orange/gold coloured eyes at the top front part of the creature's head with two holes for ears just behind them on the sides. The mouth, however, was big and had ripped off the roof of the building, holding it firmly between two sets of enormous, thick and no doubt very sharp teeth. This was known as a 'Sharptooth' to Kakalina's people, though to us modern audience, it would be something almost the same as a _Tyrannosaurus Rex,_ albeit with a few alterations to its appearance.

The creature tossed the roof to the ground, using a big pink tongue to remove any pieces of wood and leaves that were stuck to its teeth, and then glared back down into the hole it had created in the building, specifically at two humanoid creatures attempting to hide from it.

Kakalina stared wide-eyed at the creature, terrified to the point of being unable to move, her eyes wider than humanly possible. Her heart rate was rocketing, and she felt sweat run down her head and face. She wanted to run, to scream and hide, but she knew the moment she tried, the creature would lunge for her and she would be dead in seconds. Her eyes glanced over at Tama, who tried to stay as still as possible, fearing the same outcome as his companion if he so much as moved a muscle.

A low growl came from the creature as it lifted its head back a bit, clamping its teeth together as it looked around at the space for anything else that might be sufficient prey. It did catch something moving in one of the smaller areas next to this large one it had just exposed, but it could wait. The two here would be perfect for it.

With another growl, it lowered its body slightly and ripped off the wall of the building with one of its hand, tossing it aside. Kakalina tried to back away but the wall stopped her. Her chest heaved and she felt like she was going to throw up. The creature seemed to grin nastily at her, enjoying her fear at its immense size. For it, she was going to be a good dinner.

 _ **RRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!**_

The creature looked over its shoulder at the jungle behind it and growled angrily.

Storming in its direction was a huge creature, one that stood on two powerful and black hairy legs connected to a powerful torso. A pair of thick arms hung by its side and the head wore an angry expression, one that told the creature firmly: _Get away! You will not have them!_

The creature hissed and turned to face its opponent, its tail knocking against the side of the building. _You will not stop me! They're mine!_ Both creatures stared angrily at each other, daring the other to make the first move. In the building, Tama ran over to Kakalina and helped her up, embracing her in a hug as she shakily returned it.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded lightly, too shaken up for words. Aheti came out, still holding the spear in her hand as a roar from outside turned their attention to the two creatures. Loud footfalls approached their location and the 'Sharptooth' backed away a pace, growling and hissing madly, moving to the side of the building, but not much. When its opponent came into view, Kakalina and Tama gasped.

"Kong," they muttered in unison.

Kong stopped where he was, taking a moment to glance at the building. He saw the three humans staring back at them. They looked to be okay, shaken up a bit, but alive nonetheless. The only problem now was the Sharptooth was not going to back away from the building, not unless …

Kong spread his body to make it appear as large as possible and pounded his chest a few times, each one sounding like a heavy drum. The group could feel each one as he displayed his show of dominance. Kong moved his foot back behind the other and brought his fists up into a pose akin to a boxer preparing for a fight and snorted loudly. A clear _come and fight me_ to the Sharptooth. Said creature growled angrily. This enormous ape dared challenge it to a fight? Well, it was not going to stand! This ape needed to be sorted out, and it would go well with the humans once they were done.

With a roar, the Sharptooth charged at Kong, teeth bared, clawed hands at the ready and a will to kill.

Kong took a step forward and swung a right hook at the creature. A loud crack filled the air as his fist made contact with the Sharptooth's jaw and sent it to the ground, the impact shaking it and almost knocking the group off their feet. The Sharptooth roared in anger and picked itself up, only to receive another blow that knocked it into the lake with a loud splash. Kong stood back and huffed loudly, warning the creature to stay down.

Inside the building, the group sprang into action as a window of opportunity had been granted to them.

"Alright, Tama and Aheti, get the boat ready. Grab some oars and bows and arrows, just in case." Kakalina told them.

"What about Moana?" Tama asked.

Aheti went to speak, but a loud roar from outside made them look up to see Kong be forced back, narrowly missing a sharp bite from the Sharptooth as it lunged at him. He grabbed a hold of its mouth with both hands, but the Sharptooth threw itself sideways at him, knocking the gigantic ape to the ground, crushing the building where Kakalina and Tama had left Kapono's body.

"I'll get her, just go! Go, now!" Kakalina urged them and rushed back into the smaller room as Tama grabbed Aheti and led her over to the boat.

Kakalina rushed in, heart racing and adrenaline pumping. They had made it! They had made it this far! They were going to be eaten, but Kong had intervened, thank Te Fiti. Now was their chance to get on the boat, get out of here and save Moana and get off the island. Yes, they were so close.

"Moana!" she said, looking down at the Kalean chieftain's form on the floor … and stopped dead.

She-she was not moving! Her chest was still, one eye was closed and the other was barely open, and a trail of mucus ran down from her lips to the floor. A small trail of blood leaked from her nose to her mouth and down her cheek to the floor too. Upon seeing her, Kakalina gasped, shaking her head in disbelief. No! No! No!

She … she was gone! Kakalina had seen it before! The 'madness plant' was always deadly. It had not done everything she had feared, but the result was still the same.

 _Moana is dead._

 _Oh, what have I done?!_ She cried internally, sinking to her knees, letting out a quiet, gut wrenching sob, tears flowing down her face and over her fingers.

She had failed. She had tried so hard to save her, and now … now she was gone. It was all her fault!

The wall crashed open and Kakalina fell backwards with a scream. A large mouth with sharp teeth snapped wildly at her as the Sharptooth, having been knocked to the ground by Kong, tried to get at her. She backed away, frantically kicked at the ground and at the snout, her feet just missing the teeth that would rip her to pieces if they got hold of her. She threw a piece of wood at the predator, but it was undeterred. Now was its chance to gobble up one of the creatures, fight or no fight.

Just as it was about to lunge again, it barked in surprised anger as it was yanked back by Kong. The ape had grabbed hold of its tail. He gave it another yank, pulling it away from the building. The Sharptooth roared angrily at him and tried to stand up, but Kong raised is arms, leaving the legs of the Sharptooth kicking wildly and mouth snapping in fury. He had him beaten. The Sharptooth was down. Time to finish him off.

Rushed footfalls drew Kong's attention behind him where he was met with a wall of grey and something knocked him to the ground. Dazed, he looked up and saw another, slightly bigger Sharptooth with longer arms that it used to hold him down. It snarled at him and barked at its comrade to get up and join in in ripping Kong apart. Kong growled and thrust his legs up, wrapping them around the Sharptooth's rear near the tail and, with all his might, threw it sideways to the ground, scattering dirt and rubble from the building. The first Sharptooth charged at him again, but he met it with an uppercut that filled the air with another deafening crack and sent it falling to the ground. Kong turned back to the second Sharptooth as it got up and turned to face him, teeth gritted and a look of fury on its face.

Kakalina watched all this in amazement and fear. These creatures were going to rip each other apart, they were going to _kill_ each other. She did hope that Kong would be okay, but right now she wanted to get out of here. She heard Tama call out to her from the next room over the noise of another roar from the Sharptooths as they threw themselves at Kong, but he dived out of the way and they slammed into each other with a sickening _CRACK!_ There was no doubt he was going to survive this night. If only Moana had been more -

Something struck her in back and she fell forward with a cry of pain. _God that hurt! What the hell did that_? Kakalina looked up and went white as a sheet.

Standing before her, to her shock and absolute terror, was none other than Moana herself, only this time she was not her normal self at a point of sudden recovery. No.

The Kalean chieftain stood over her with a look of what one could only describe as pure hatred. Her eyes were open as wide as they could go and were now a deep blood red and wild like that of an animal. Blood ran down her face along with some mucus, but Moana did not pay it any attention. Her hair was messy and unkempt. Her teeth were gritted to the point that they would surely break if she pushed any harder. Her chest rose and fell heavily like a person furious at someone for harming them or their family and were out to take personal revenge. Kakalina's eyes fell to Moana's hand which held an oar. She looked up pleadingly at Moana's face, hoping that she could see some trace of her left in there.

But there was none. There was only anger. Rage. Fury. And the will to kill, and it was all directed at her.

"Oh, Te Fiti help me!"Kakalina cried to herself as she backed away. "Moana, snap out of it! It's me! Kakalina!" she begged.

This only served to aggravate her more as Moana roared and lunged at her and pinned her to the ground. She grabbed her around the neck with her free hand and raised the oar with the other. Kakalina cried out and tried to push Moana off her, but the young woman's adrenaline made it almost impossible and Moana struck her over the head with the oar, splitting Kakalina's head open.

"Moana! Stop!" Kakalina cried out but was met with a snarl.

Moana was gone. She was like a wild animal, one that was hell bent on trapping and killing her prey, and Kakalina was that prey.

"Moana …. P-please!" Kakalina gasped for breath, but the chieftain just pushed her thumbs into her throat.

A loud boom threw Moana off Kakalina with a yell and Kakalina saw her chance. Though it hurt her to move given what had just happened, she got up and, stumbling a little, ran out of the building and into grassland area. Moana, upon seeing her target flee, screamed in frustration and ran out after her, determined to do one thing and one thing only: _Kill Kakalina!_

Aheti saw them go and went to run out after them, but Tama grabbed her. "Tama, let me go!" she shouted at him angrily.

"No, you can't. It's too dangerous, Aheti!" he firmly replied to her. _God, I'm sounding like my brother_. "You'll get crushed!"

"No!" Aheti pushed him off her and ran, but he ran after her and manged to grab her and wrestle her to the ground. "Get … off … of … me!" she seethed at him.

"Aheti, listen to me!" Tama managed to pin her down and stop her from running. "We can't go after them. Now come on, before we get killed." He began pulling her back towards the boat, having to wrestle with her as she tried to break away.

Kong roared again at the smaller Sharptooth, running forward and doing a dropkick that sent it into the lake, throwing large waves in all directions. The second Sharptooth roared angrily and jumped on Kong and bit down on the ape's arm as hard as it could go. Kong roared in pain, feeling the teeth pierce the skin. He tried to punch the creature in the head, but despite causing blood to flow and another bone to audibly crack, it refused to let go. Kong had to use something, or he was going to lose his arm.

Looking on the ground nearby, he saw it. One of the large boulders that lay embedded in the ground, he grabbed it with his other hand and swung it as hard as he could, striking the Sharptooth right in the eye. The creature let out a scream of pain, immediately releasing its bite, and fell to the ground, roaring in pain. Kong seized the initiative, got up and struck the creature over the head with the boulder, knocking it out cold. The second Sharptooth burst out of the lake and charged at him, raring to rip him apart and leapt into the air, forcing Kong onto the ground. He tried to strike the fierce creature with the rock, but it knocked the rock out of his hand and into the grassy area near the buildings.

* * *

Kakalina ran as fast as she could, trying not to trip up, lest Moana get to her and kill her. But then again, she knew that if she kept going on in this direction, she would likely be cornered and killed by a predator. Looking back at Kong, she saw him strike down one of the Sharptooths. _Well that's one I don't have to worry with._ She stopped and frantically looked around, pushing down on her head in the hopes of stopping the blood flow.

 _Which way should I go?_ She mentally asked herself.

Suddenly, she was flying and fell hard against the ground, landing painfully on her side. Kakalina groaned, seeing that a large boulder was now lodged in the ground close to where she had been standing moments ago. Looking over at Kong, she saw a Sharptooth pinning him down and trying to stop the ape from throwing it off. A moment of panic gripped her. _Oh no, if he gets killed then we could all die!_

She was snapped out of her thoughts when, to her horror, Moana rushed up to her and jumped onto her, pinning her to the ground and grabbing her neck hard. Kakalina tried to gasp something out, but Moana did not listen, the madness within her too much to control and too focused on killing what she saw was the one responsible for all of this. She wanted to kill her, to make her feel pain and anguish like she had to her and her people who had come to help this woman.

Kakalina tried to force Moana off her again, but the woman responded by throwing a punch at her face. The blow shattered Kakalina's nose and she cried out in pain, tears stinging her eyes. Blood flowed, yet Moana did not even seem to notice it, nor the fact that her hand was now covered with blood.

"M-Moana! P-please!" Kakalina begged, sobbing hysterically. "Please don't kill me!"

Moana snarled something in return, baring her teeth like a tiger or lion, spitting saliva at her victim's face. Why should she spare her?! She brought this on herself! She deserved all of this, and more.

Moana reached her other hand behind her and grabbed a sharp piece of wood she had put between her skin and dress and held it high above her. Kakalina cried out, begging the chieftain to not do it. To not kill her! To spare her! But it was hopeless. Moana was too far gone. She was too under the influence of the madness plant. Now nothing could save her, and nothing could save Kakalina.

Suddenly, just as Moana went to stab her victim, the roar from earlier echoed out across the lake area. The bear/scream roar, the one that had sent chills down Kakalina's spine. Moana glared at her surroundings, wanting to find out what creature was daring to make this noise and stop her from giving someone what they deserve. Tama and Aheti, who had given up trying to flee and was sitting on the ship, began to search their surroundings nervously. Even Kong and the Sharptooth had ceased their fighting. Though they were both tough fighters, that sound chilled them to their bones.

And what made it was about to reveal itself.

Crashing from the direction of where Moana and Aheti had entered the area drew all eyes to it. Something smashed its way out of the jungle, knocking over trees as if they were made of plastic, and stood tall and proud, observing the scene before it with its blood red eyes and thirst for blood. The darkness of the night sky mostly obscured its vision, but the faint outline of it told those near the lake that it was big. Even from the few hundred feet distance between them, the creature's breathing was audible as if right next to them – or above them given the size difference.

It moved forward, advancing with ease over the landscape, intentionally slamming its feet hard into the ground as a display of intimidation. The Sharptooth holding down Kong growled and, pushing him into the ground, walked over him and began to advance towards this new threat. Terrifying or not, this was _its_ place, and no other predator or creature was going to take it away. It growled and roared angrily, baring its teeth and claws to frighten the new arrival.

The creature, however, was unfazed. It advanced like a confident warrior, unperturbed at the sight of a powerful foe, ready to face off against whatever was coming against it. Behind the Sharptooth, Kong looked up and his face contorted into a look of horror. _Not this thing. Not again!_

Kakalina whimpered, both in pain, and fear of the creature. Moana just stared at it with an angry/shocked expression. _What was this thing?_

When it came near, she saw it clearly, and could only describe it as a living demon.

The creature was tall, about the same height as Kong, give or take an extra few metres. It had a similar body to the Sharptooth, but instead of having an elongated shape to its body, it stood almost practically on its hind legs, towering over the Sharptooth's inferior height. The legs had no visible knees and were scaly and covered with scars and bite marks. The body was, in stark contrast to Kong's, quite thin, similar to the Howlers the humans had run into nights ago. A pair of bony, but long arms like that of a human's protruded from the front of the creature's torso. The neck was long and thin, and the head was something out of person's worst nightmare. It was like that of some kind of dragon/lizard-like creature with blood red eyes on a head that a sort of angular shape with a flat head and a snout that ended in a point rather than a curve as with the Sharptooth. Rows of pointed, dagger-like teeth filled the mouth and a pair of horns stuck out of the top of the head above the eyes, both about the same length as Moana's height and pointing outwards, a lethal weapon if used aggressively. Along the back of the creature ran a row of spikes, each one slightly taller than the horns on the head, and they ran down a long tail that was about the same length as the main body part and tail of the Sharptooth, only much thicker rather than getting thinner towards the end. What stood out the most though was, like the eyes, the skin was a blood red colour, glowing in the slowly emerging moonlight, giving it the look as if this creature were painting itself in the blood of its victims and foes. If that really were the case, then it looked like more were going to be added to that list very soon.

"Te Fiti help us," Kakalina whimpered, the pain in her nose and head indifferent to what was likely in store for them all now. "It's Gowa."

The Sharptooth growled at Gowa, who was not even fazed by the show of aggression and instead replied with her own growl. Angered, the Sharptooth lunged at her, but she simply reached out and grabbed the creature by the neck and, with a strength that belied her thin build, slammed the creature into the ground, finishing it off with a scratch from her massive clawed hand. Though the others could not see the effect of the strike, they could guess from the bloody mess on the Gowa's hand that she had torn off part of the face.

And as she looked up, her eyes fell on two tiny figures standing, by her measurements, just mere metres away. Her mouth spread into a dark grin, one of a hunger that would soon be satiated, a thirst that would soon be quenched, and a desire that would be met.

She stepped forward over the fallen form of the Sharptooth towards the humans, purring in eagerness. Below, Moana backed away from her, forgetting about Kakalina, holding the piece of wood in her hand tightly, glaring back up at the Gowa: _C'mon, you demon! Come and fight me!_ On the ground next to her, Kakalina tried to pick herself, but was stopped when the Gowa stood over her, the creature's huge clawed feet just metres from her. With a snarl, Gowa raised her foot, pointing the clawed toes directly at the human below.

 _Help me!_

Kakalina barely had time to scream before the foot slammed into the ground and she was no more. Moana was knocked on her back by the force of the impact, hitting her head on a small rock. Dazed, she grunted angrily and sat up, rubbing the back of her head. _That stupid creature. When I get my hands on her, I'll-_

A large shadow enveloped her. Looking up, she saw the Gowa glaring menacingly down at her, wanting to end the life of what it saw was this puny creature, one that was, quite literally from its perspective, no more than an insect. Moana glared back up at it, her own bloody eyes meeting the Gowa's. _Screw the size, I'll fight you if I have to!_

Just as Gowa was about repeat the same method of exterminating a human on Moana, a large shape threw itself onto the Gowa, sending it and her to the ground with a chorus of surprised and angry roars. It was Kong. The ground leapt under them as both creatures tussled and fought to overpower the other. Kong slammed his fist into Gowa's side, making her screech in pain, and she responded with a scratch to his chest, followed by another to his face that almost would have blinded him were it not for his bloody arm. Gowa then swung an uppercut at Kong, hitting him in the chin and sending him back onto the ground, his head landing just near Moana, knocking her over once again.

Kong groaned as his vision came back to him. That had hurt, a lot. Gowa was one tough cookie, something he knew first-hand having fought her once before. He had failed back then to stop this demented creature from killing many other creatures and humans, only just being able to escape with his own life. It looked like this time he would not be so lucky. He could see her getting to her feet, no doubt ready to stomp him out of existence.

A tiny figure moved just in front of his face. Lifting it up a little, he saw it was a woman, one with wild black hair and wearing a skirt and a chest piece of cloth. She appeared shaken, but unhurt as she pulled herself to her feet, breathing heavily. Heck, she looked more pissed of than anything.

She looked at him. Their eyes met and Kong's widened in shock. _What?! H-How?!_

A deep guttural growl drew his attention back to Gowa, who was now standing over them, determined to finish the job. Moana glared back up at her, an expression that dared the blood red beast to come and fight her evident. However, she failed to notice a gigantic hand raise itself above her. Looking up, she saw Kong's open palm high above her. Her face fell a little in defeat.

 _Oh no!_

With that the hand slammed down onto her.

* * *

From what they hoped was the safety of their boat far out on the lake, Tama and Aheti watched the scene unfold with a mixture of shock and awe, and deep-rooted fear.

"What is that?" Aheti breathed.

"Gowa," Tama replied. "A demonic creature that hunts across the island, one of the reasons why we had so many problems before. She doesn't rush out like other predators, she waits for the kill."

"She's smart, an alpha predator." Aheti remarked, to which Tama nodded, then froze.

"Oh no! She's looking right at us!"

It was true. They had watched her kill the Sharptooth and take down Kong and stomp on something that was on the ground, which the two knew was most likely – though they did not want to admit it – Moana and Kakalina. Now, after doing something to the Kong creature again, it was looking over at them hungrily. Yet, it made no move to go after them, no attempt to charge out at them and rip them apart. No, she just stood there.

Observing, watching them. Contemplating something.

Then, without another sound, she turned and strode back into the jungle, leaving Tama and Aheti alone on the boat.

Where she was going, they had no idea. All that was left, and what to do now was uncertain.

 **Author's note: Hello fellow FF readers and writers. I hope you are all doing well.**

 **First of all, I, AGAIN, must apologise for the lack of updates for the last five months. A very heavy workload, some holidays and a series of health problems (nothing serious, thankfully) prevented me from working on the FF. I deeply and sincerely apologise for the delay in updating this. Rest assured, however; I have not and will not abandon this FF. I intend to see it through to its end, and now that the aforementioned issues have mostly been dealt with, I can update more often.**

 **Hopefully you have all not been driven off by the lack of updates. Keep track of this FF as it will become more active in the weeks ahead.**

 **Also, as a note, the Gowa is a creature inspired by GAW from the Kong novel 'Kong; King of Skull Island'. Obviously, I have made changes and added my own descriptions of it, but some features are the same.**

 **Hope you are all enjoying the FF thus far.**


	14. Revelation

Blackness. Pain. Something … wet. My head. I … I can't see, my vision is too fuzzy. W-where am I? _Obviously somewhere dark,_ but _where am I is what I really want to know?_

I sit up, my arms weak, my legs aching and swollen. I breath heavily, coughing up some kind of liquid onto the … ground. Cold and hard and stony. I try to look around. Dark, but gradually returning, my vision is. I feel my chest; my heart is still there and beating. _Good._ I'm relieved, but now … now I need to get out of here. I can't see any sun or night sky. How long have I been out?

 _Where am I?_ I ask myself that question again.

I look around my surroundings. It's becoming slightly clearer now. A light, faint in its glow and reach, came from one end. All around me is rock. The walls, the ground and the ceiling and stretching on for what looked like hundreds of feet ahead of me, turning right around some kind of bend and disappearing there. Behind me, it was dark, almost pitch black due to the lack of light. I reach forward and felt the wet ground in front of me and around me. _Did I accidentally relieve myself?_

I feel around my body, feeling sweat, grime and some other liquid all over me, including my hair. All of it are semi-dry, but where did they get wet. I didn't jump into a lake or river. Had it been raining? Or had I-

 _Lake?_ It starts to come back to me. I only remember a lot of screaming, roaring, the fighting of large creatures and … and … I remember … I was angry, like _really_ angry. I wanted to kill someone. I wanted to kill … _Kakalina. Did I …?_

I look down at my hands, but it was too dark. I needed light.

I try to stand up, but a sharp pain flares up and down my legs. Ow! That damn hurt! I try again, but it comes back worse than ever. I inwardly growl, annoyed that I can't even walk. _I guess I'm gonna have to drag myself forward._

I sit up and, turning my back towards the light, began pushing myself towards it, wincing as my legs ached with every movement I make. I keep going. I push myself on, letting out a little cry as my leg hits a large rock. Tears sting my eyes. _Gods, this hurts so much!_

Just as I reach the outer edges of the light, a large shuffle from further down the cave grabs my attention. I freeze, my eyes fixated on the place where the noise was, hoping I could make some kind of shape or guess as to what caused it. No. It's too dark to see into it. Another shuffle comes, this time a little louder, followed by a quiet, but deep noise. Like a sigh.

 _Something's there! I gotta get outta here!_

I start pushing myself back faster, trying to ignore the pain in my legs as they knock into everything. They hit another rock and I almost cry out. _Damnit!_ Another sound comes from ahead. Something heavy moves. I freeze and look, seeing the very faint outline of … something move, something big.

 _Oh Te Fiti, help me!_

I try to move, but a large shape moves towards me, emerging so fast from the darkness, and yet so obscured by it, that I can't even scream. I look up, trying to see the face, but something is coming at me. A hand?! _Oh no!_

It grabs me and scoops me up into its open hand, lifting me towards the cave roof. _Is it gonna smash me into the rock? Am I gonna be like squished fruit, my insides spread out everywhere in this damn place?!_

It stops. I look up, but the face is barely visible. Only a faint glimmer of light comes from … a pair of small, beady eyes on the front of its big face. I can't see the rest of the face, it's too dark, but I could feel those eyes looking right into me, intimidating me into submission. I can't move, I can't speak. I can barely breathe. _What is it gonna do?_

It moves forward down the cave towards the light. I land on my back, the movement quick and catching me unprepared. I look up, seeing the ray of light gradually creep across the thing's face. I look over my shoulder, just being able to see over the fingertips. They were vaguely human, but coarser and thicker, and there was fur on the back of the hand, strands of it visible around the sides and sticking up along the sides of the hand and fingers. _What the Lalotai is this thing?!_

The light bursts from around the corner and I'm momentarily blinded, like one of those darkseeker creatures I saw in Lalotai when I was on my voyage. I throw my arm in front of my face, trying to stop it as it engulfs my body. I look at my hand and see … red? Dried red stuff?

 _Is that … that … b-blood?!_ I think back to moments ago, my anger and hatred that I felt earlier at the lake. At everyone. At Kakalina.

My heart stops. _Did-did I …?_ Tears sting my eyes as I look sadly at the hand that was now my floor, my world crumbling apart in that I … I … I-I _killed_ someone.

The creature stops. I turn to look at it, seeing for the first time the face of one of these things up close, _really_ up close.

It was the Kong creature, a rough skinned, haggard and weary face covered with scars and several faint bloodied wounds where it had been attacked by something. It was a face that looked clearly tired, worn out and beaten from constant fight and expenditure of energy. The thing down at me with … relief, and … pity? _Why?_

Somehow, I found my voice gradually creep back to me. "W-what are you gonna do to me?" I ask it, my voice laden with fear.

It sighs heavily, briefly showing me a mouth of square shaped teeth, each one the size of an entrance into one of our huts back on Kalea. Gently, it kneels down and places me on the ground. I look around, seeing that we are in some kind of large round area with a huge opening above us that showed a sunny sky. _I was out long._ All around us, plants grew along the rocks as if trying to claim this area as another part of a natural kingdom for greenery to grow and flourish. A small waterfall flows nearby, forming a pool on the ground about twenty feet away.

The creature makes a noise and points over at a small mound with some rocks forming a kind of circle at the top. I look back up at it, silently wondering if it wanted me to go up there. It gently nods. Nervous, I do what it wants, though with really big fear. What if it wants to distract me, set me up on some kind of plate so it can have me for dinner? Maybe it's biding its time, waiting to eat me.

 _And I can't do a damn thing about it if that's what it wants_ I mentally tell myself, resigned, done.

Defeated.

I reach the top of the mound, seeing that the rocks formed a kind of circle around the edge with a square like slab in the middle.

I gasp when I see what's on there.

It was a kind of C shaped bone, the top of what looked like a cream coloured hook, one that was really like … no, it was … it was a fishhook. The broken top of a fishhook.

 _But if it's here, and the thing behind me didn't eat me. Then …_

I turn around, looking up at the creature's face, this time staring right into its eyes, the words jumbled in my mouth, barely able to make a coherent sentence. All I can say is one word, one that I thought I would never have to say.

"Maui?"


End file.
